Hajooj Kuka's short yet powerful Beats of the Antonov is a poignant documentary on the war-ravaged border between North and South Sudan, set against the backdrop of refugee communities who have only one another to cling on to. Yet thanks to Kuka's insistence on giving the refugees a voice to speak, Beats of the Antonov is an optimistic film that shows how communities can thrive even as people actively try to destroy them.

Much of Beats of the Antonov is centered around Sudanese communities finding hope through song and dance. Men play the stringed rebaba, while children and adults sing their own songs about the strife of war, much like modern-day Woody Guthries. The film has philosophical ramifications as well, such as when ethnomusicologist explains why "girl music" is especially important to the Sudanese people, while also engaging in a debate with a colleague over what it actually means to be Sudanese.

Beats of the Antonov Soundtrack Sampler

What it means to be Sudanese a question that is explored throughout the film, and there is a stark and real juxtaposition to it all. The refugee communities look downright happy during periods of song and dance, until human sirens hail the coming of the Antonov, the Russian planes used by Omar Al-Bashri's regime to bomb villages in Sudan. Kuka's cameras run and dive for cover with the rest of the refugees during those moments, and you are forced to remember the horrible crisis that unfolds on the screen happens every day of the refugees' lives.

Kuka's approach to the documentary deserves heaps of praise. It would be too easy to just show the guts of splattered cows after a bomb explodes or images of starving children to get the point across that the war in Sudan is a terrible thing. But Kuka strays far from the easy, and lazy, way of reporting war. Instead, he puts the humanity of it upfront. Kuka shows the Sudanese people who are affected by their surroundings, and gives each of them enough time to present his or her own story. The result is a documentary with a rich blend of voices and points of view, all culminating in just how hard it is to answer what is seemingly a simple question: "What does it mean to be Sudanese?"

Beats of the Antonov is an enchanting look into something that has gone on for so long that much of the world has forgotten that a civil war is even taking place in Sudan right now. The documentary is a sobering look at what war does to a community, but also a heroic tale of how music and art stay with us even when a situation is most dire.

Hajooj Kuka's short yet powerful Beats of the Antonov is a poignant documentary on the war-ravaged border between North and South Sudan, set against the backdrop of refugee communities who have only one another to cling on to. Yet thanks to Kuka's insistence on giving the refugees a voice to speak, Beats of the Antonov is an optimistic film that shows how communities can thrive even as people actively try to destroy them.
Much of Beats of the Antonov is centered around Sudanese communities finding hope through song and dance. Men play the stringed rebaba, while children and adults sing their own songs about the strife of war, much like modern-day Woody Guthries. The film has philosophical ramifications as well, such as when ethnomusicologist explains why "girl music" is especially important to the Sudanese people, while also engaging in a debate with a colleague over what it actually means to be Sudanese.

Beats of the Antonov Soundtrack Sampler

What it means to be Sudanese a question that is explored throughout the film, and there is a stark and real juxtaposition to it all. The refugee communities look downright happy during periods of song and dance, until human sirens hail the coming of the Antonov, the Russian planes used by Omar Al-Bashri's regime to bomb villages in Sudan. Kuka's cameras run and dive for cover with the rest of the refugees during those moments, and you are forced to remember the horrible crisis that unfolds on the screen happens every day of the refugees' lives.
Kuka's approach to the documentary deserves heaps of praise. It would be too easy to just show the guts of splattered cows after a bomb explodes or images of starving children to get the point across that the war in Sudan is a terrible thing. But Kuka strays far from the easy, and lazy, way of reporting war. Instead, he puts the humanity of it upfront. Kuka shows the Sudanese people who are affected by their surroundings, and gives each of them enough time to present his or her own story. The result is a documentary with a rich blend of voices and points of view, all culminating in just how hard it is to answer what is seemingly a simple question: "What does it mean to be Sudanese?"
Beats of the Antonov is an enchanting look into something that has gone on for so long that much of the world has forgotten that a civil war is even taking place in Sudan right now. The documentary is a sobering look at what war does to a community, but also a heroic tale of how music and art stay with us even when a situation is most dire.

Platform, the second full-length from San Francisco musician, producer, and conceptual artist Holly Herndon, tackles the many confusing, conflicted layers of modern living, in the form of a poppy, accessible dancefloor sound sculpture.

Sine the fall of the Berlin Wall, there's been much lamentation and hand-wringing for the decline of an overarching cultural narrative, as we fall farther and faster down the postmodern wormhole. This lack of commentary may have something to do with too many viewpoints, too much to take in, or too many ways of looking at things. But while we many not be able to define, definitively, the world we are living in, it would be false to say there is no "Sound Of Now 2015" -- much like when former Supreme Court Justice Potter Stewart's defined hardcore pornography by saying: "I know it when I see it."

"I think our society likes to talk about technology in really black and white terms, so things are simply defined as positive or negative. That doesn't solve any problems and I think it can be anti-intellectual. So with my work, I like to 'complexify' issues a little bit and show that certain concepts are not just simply good or bad. With a track like 'Home' it's obviously very critical of the NSA and aspects of technology in my life and people have been like, 'So, does that mean you don't like your laptop anymore?' My response is always, 'No, that's not what that means.' It means that I can still have a love and appreciation of that as a tool but you can always still be critical of it." - Holly Herndon, via The Quietus

Modern, futuristic music is immediately identifiable: we know it when we see or hear it. One of the most common signifiers of modern music would be the mutated, modulated sound of the human voice -- chopped and slurred into an anonymous, androgynous blur. From the otherworldly moaning of Burial's Untrue to the genderfuck anonymity of 18+, to the post-everything mutations of Fever Ray & The Knife, all have been accepted and championed as being entirely contemporary.

This digitization, like the technology that surrounds us like a miasma, is a double-edged sword. On one hand, our interconnected world has made all conversations about privilege and equality more possible than ever, forcing us to put ourselves in the shoes/sandals/hooves of other people from all over the world. On the other, it can be tempting to say that these issues no longer exist -- that we are "post-racism", "post-sexism" -- but we all have our meat suits, our hang-ups, our conditioning. We're not out of the woods.

Holly Herndon tackles these dualities, knowingly, and with great aplomb, while still making a great artpop dance record. In a recent interview with The Quietus, she spoke pragmatically, about dealing with the world, as it is, including technology. She's not interested in looking backward, or lamenting. She's interested in moving forward, and finding positive solutions.

Herndon circumnavigates digital pitfalls, via collaboration, turning the hermetic vision of the isolated producer on its ear. Two of Platform's collaborators -- Mat Dryhurst and Claire Tolans -- act as shadowy subtexts, illustrating the silhouette of a mission statement.

Mat Dryhurst is a musician and computer programmer, who inspired Herndon with his concept of "net concrete", a patch in the academic computer music program MaxMSP, which can convert personal web browser history into audio data, like an accelerated, out of control take on musique concrete. Net concrete's sound collage can be heard on "Home", an atmospheric and vaguely disassociated romance, between surveillance and the surveyed, full of crackling, crinkling percussive rattles, and weightless, unearthly basstones that sound like they were dipped in motor oil. This sound collage is rough, spastic, and noisy, not keeping with the hyperclean minimal aesthetic commonly associated with the futuristic. The net concrete approach places Platform on a continuum with fellow data-hacker/cultural commentator James Ferraro, with his influential NYC, HELL 3:00AM. While James Ferraro's concrete statement may sound like robotripping in the world's largest mall with food poisoning, Herndon's sculptures seem almost loving, with clips of lovers laughing, snagged from Skype conversations, mixed in amidst the bleeps, burrs, and blurry rumbles.

Holly Herndon -- "Home" Music Video

Infamous Berlin Community Radio personality Claire Tolan appears on "Lonely At The Top," which may be Platform's most impactful track, and also its most experimental. "Lonely At The Top" features Tolan whispering comforting corporate-speak adages over a bedrock of the sounds of a massage, and the sparse clicking of fingers on a keyboard, with no backing music whatsoever. It's like eavesdropping on the most sympathetic customer service representative of all time. It is a somewhat sad, sick, and also hilarious comment on high-priced professionals, paying $100/hr for a friendly ear, to have someone tell you, "You're worth it," and "You're doing great!" Like the rest of Platform, there is not one easy reading of "Lonely At The Top". It seems like a critique and observation of corporate culture, but we wonder if Herndon and Tolan are just doling out the top-shelf services for the masses. We all need to be needed, and we all want to feel special. It's nice to hear it, sometimes.

Claire Tolan is also one of the leading icons of ASMR -- autonomous sensory meridian response -- that is defined as a pleasurable tingling sensation, in your head and scalp, that is often produced by the sound of whispering -- or other sensory stimuli. Her cameo on Platform is one more example that Herndon is seeking out every possible permutation of the human voice and its effects, and that she's willing to use every tool at her disposal for good, not ill.

Without knowing the present, it can be difficult to picture the future. Living in 2015 can feel like listening to millions of voices, shouting at once. It can be difficult to know who to listen to. We might as well learn to make music out of the din.

Platform, the second full-length from San Francisco musician, producer, and conceptual artist Holly Herndon, tackles the many confusing, conflicted layers of modern living, in the form of a poppy, accessible dancefloor sound sculpture.
Sine the fall of the Berlin Wall, there's been much lamentation and hand-wringing for the decline of an overarching cultural narrative, as we fall farther and faster down the postmodern wormhole. This lack of commentary may have something to do with too many viewpoints, too much to take in, or too many ways of looking at things. But while we many not be able to define, definitively, the world we are living in, it would be false to say there is no "Sound Of Now 2015" -- much like when former Supreme Court Justice Potter Stewart's defined hardcore pornography by saying: "I know it when I see it."

"I think our society likes to talk about technology in really black and white terms, so things are simply defined as positive or negative. That doesn't solve any problems and I think it can be anti-intellectual. So with my work, I like to 'complexify' issues a little bit and show that certain concepts are not just simply good or bad. With a track like 'Home' it's obviously very critical of the NSA and aspects of technology in my life and people have been like, 'So, does that mean you don't like your laptop anymore?' My response is always, 'No, that's not what that means.' It means that I can still have a love and appreciation of that as a tool but you can always still be critical of it." - Holly Herndon, via The Quietus

Platform by Holly Herndon
Modern, futuristic music is immediately identifiable: we know it when we see or hear it. One of the most common signifiers of modern music would be the mutated, modulated sound of the human voice -- chopped and slurred into an anonymous, androgynous blur. From the otherworldly moaning of Burial's Untrue to the genderfuck anonymity of 18+, to the post-everything mutations of Fever Ray & The Knife, all have been accepted and championed as being entirely contemporary.
This digitization, like the technology that surrounds us like a miasma, is a double-edged sword. On one hand, our interconnected world has made all conversations about privilege and equality more possible than ever, forcing us to put ourselves in the shoes/sandals/hooves of other people from all over the world. On the other, it can be tempting to say that these issues no longer exist -- that we are "post-racism", "post-sexism" -- but we all have our meat suits, our hang-ups, our conditioning. We're not out of the woods.
Holly Herndon tackles these dualities, knowingly, and with great aplomb, while still making a great artpop dance record. In a recent interview with The Quietus, she spoke pragmatically, about dealing with the world, as it is, including technology. She's not interested in looking backward, or lamenting. She's interested in moving forward, and finding positive solutions.

Herndon circumnavigates digital pitfalls, via collaboration, turning the hermetic vision of the isolated producer on its ear. Two of Platform's collaborators -- Mat Dryhurst and Claire Tolans -- act as shadowy subtexts, illustrating the silhouette of a mission statement.
Mat Dryhurst is a musician and computer programmer, who inspired Herndon with his concept of "net concrete", a patch in the academic computer music program MaxMSP, which can convert personal web browser history into audio data, like an accelerated, out of control take on musique concrete. Net concrete's sound collage can be heard on "Home", an atmospheric and vaguely disassociated romance, between surveillance and the surveyed, full of crackling, crinkling percussive rattles, and weightless, unearthly basstones that sound like they were dipped in motor oil. This sound collage is rough, spastic, and noisy, not keeping with the hyperclean minimal aesthetic commonly associated with the futuristic. The net concrete approach places Platform on a continuum with fellow data-hacker/cultural commentator James Ferraro, with his influential NYC, HELL 3:00AM. While James Ferraro's concrete statement may sound like robotripping in the world's largest mall with food poisoning, Herndon's sculptures seem almost loving, with clips of lovers laughing, snagged from Skype conversations, mixed in amidst the bleeps, burrs, and blurry rumbles.

Holly Herndon -- "Home" Music Video

Infamous Berlin Community Radio personality Claire Tolan appears on "Lonely At The Top," which may be Platform's most impactful track, and also its most experimental. "Lonely At The Top" features Tolan whispering comforting corporate-speak adages over a bedrock of the sounds of a massage, and the sparse clicking of fingers on a keyboard, with no backing music whatsoever. It's like eavesdropping on the most sympathetic customer service representative of all time. It is a somewhat sad, sick, and also hilarious comment on high-priced professionals, paying $100/hr for a friendly ear, to have someone tell you, "You're worth it," and "You're doing great!" Like the rest of Platform, there is not one easy reading of "Lonely At The Top". It seems like a critique and observation of corporate culture, but we wonder if Herndon and Tolan are just doling out the top-shelf services for the masses. We all need to be needed, and we all want to feel special. It's nice to hear it, sometimes.
Claire Tolan is also one of the leading icons of ASMR -- autonomous sensory meridian response -- that is defined as a pleasurable tingling sensation, in your head and scalp, that is often produced by the sound of whispering -- or other sensory stimuli. Her cameo on Platform is one more example that Herndon is seeking out every possible permutation of the human voice and its effects, and that she's willing to use every tool at her disposal for good, not ill.
Without knowing the present, it can be difficult to picture the future. Living in 2015 can feel like listening to millions of voices, shouting at once. It can be difficult to know who to listen to. We might as well learn to make music out of the din.

SIFF 2015 (Seattle International Film Festival) really shows off its vitality as the longest film festival in North America this year. Operating a host of its own theatres this year, from the SIFF Cinema Uptown and SIFF Cinema to the newly acquired SIFF Egyptian, SIFF is going strong, and this year, many of our top picks are centered around recent political happenings, music trends, food, murder, and freedom.

Schedules are subject to change, so please consult the official festival website before you head out!

SIFF 2015 (Seattle International Film Festival 2015) Top Film Picks

African Films

Beats of the Antonov (Sudan)Directed by Hajooj Kuka
In an area of the world completely torn asunder by war, the one thing South Sudan can hold on to is their vibrant musical culture as citizens are forced into refugee camps to survive. Hajooj Kuka takes a look at the resilience of the Sudanese communities in these terrible situations. - Peter WoodburnVIEW TRAILER

May 21, 6:30 @ SIFF Cinema Uptown
May 22, 4:00 @ Pacific Place 11

Australian & Pacific Islander Films

Charlie's Country (Australia) * TOP PICK *Directed by Rolf de Heer
An out-of-sorts and aging aboriginal named Charlie paints tree bark and fishes most days, but feels increasingly estranged from the Australia of his youth. The last straw comes when police confiscate Charlie's spear as a weapon, prompting him to leave his community and head out indeterminately into "the bush." But the new Australia isn't done with him yet. Charlie's Country is a heartbreaking portrayal of a changing world with little respect for marginalized peoples. Best Actor (David Gulpilil), Cannes Film Festival. - Aaron Bruner

May 15, 4:00 @ Harvard Exit
May 16, 9:30 @ Harvard Exit

Carribean Films

Behavior - Conducta (Cuba) * TOP PICK *Directed by Ernesto Daranas
A polarizing hit in its home country, this rare film from Cuba chronicles the drama that ensues after a seasoned school teacher makes it her mission to remove her student from a governmental re-education facility. - Vivian Hua

East Asian & Southeast Asian Films

A Hard Day (South Korea)Directed by Seong-hun Kim
Homicide detective Ko Gun-soo accidentally commits a hit and run on a lonely stretch of highway. As he quickly tries to hide evidence and cover his tracks, his life goes from bad to worse in this South Korean thriller. - Peter WoodburnVIEW TRAILER

May 19, 9:30pm @ SIFF Cinema Uptown
May 20, 9:30pm @ SIFF Egyptian

Big Father, Small Father and Other Stories - Cha và con và (Vietnam, France, Germany)* TOP PICK *Directed by Phan Dang Di
Modern Saigon is seen in all its raw, bold, and sensuous colors, when viewed through the eyes of three promiscuous youngsters who explore their own boundaries without fear. - Vivian Hua

June 3, 9:30pm @ Harvard Exit
June 5, 12:30pm @ SIFF Cinema Uptown

The Cave of Silken Web - Pan Si Dong (Hong Kong)Directed by Meng Hua Ho
"This 1967 Shaw Brothers' classic is an action-packed remake of the 1927 silent epic. In The Cave of the Silken Web, our traveling monk and his three companions encounter seven sexy spider demons, convinced they will live forever on their flesh." - SIFF WebsiteVIEW TRAILER

May 19, 9:30pm @ SIFF Cinema Uptown
May 20, 9:30pm @ SIFF Egyptian

Daughter - Dukhtar (Pakistan)Directed by Afia Nathaniel
In old-school dramatic fashion, this film from Pakistan follows the journey of a mother and her ten-year-old daughter as they flee from an arranged wedding with a local tribal leader, through cityscapes and natural formations. - Vivian HuaVIEW TRAILER

The Golden Era - Huang Jin Shi Dai (China, Hong Kong)Directed by Ann HuiThe Golden Era focuses on five years in the life of Xio Hang, a political writer and influencer during the 1930s. The film offers insight on the Chinese political climate of that time as well as weaves in her philosophical musings: "I cannot choose how I will live or how I will die, but I can choose how I love and how I live. This is the freedom that I want. My Golden Era."VIEW TRAILER

How To Win At Checkers (Every Time) (Thailand, USA, Indonesia, Hong Kong)Directed by Josh Kim
A well-shot but not overly slick coming-of-age film, Checkers tells the story of Oat, his older brother Ek, and the military draft lottery that comes for every Thai man at age 21. The film's use of Thailand's complex sexual spectrum as a subtle backdrop rather than the main focus is a refreshing conceit. The film does a wonderful job of showing the character of Thailand, as well as telling a fairly compelling story of growing up and brotherly love. - Allen HuangVIEW TRAILER

Little Forest (Japan) * TOP PICK *Directed by Junichi Mori
This gargantuan, four-part series has to be the quietest, most insular movie featured at this year's festival. This film is about two things: the beautiful Japanese countryside and cooking. The food looks good, the scenery is wonderful, and everything else doesn't matter. Each portion represents a season, and features the delicious foods you can cook using sources found/harvested during that period. Pure audio/visual catnip. - Allen Huang

A Matter of Interpretation (South Korea) * TOP PICK *Directed by Kwang-kuk Lee
A talky, Jarmusch-esque meditation on life transitions and dreams. The film's convoluted structure (yes, dreams within dreams) is confounding at times, but the excellent acting of Shin Dong Mi provides the necessary compass for one's enjoyment. The Korean language can be very nuanced and clever; this film aims to show just how. - Allen Huang

Snow on the Blades - Zakurozaka no Adauchi (Japan) * TOP PICK *Directed by Setsuro Wakamatsu
A tangentially relevant take on the Samurai Vengeance trope, Snow on the Blades has fallen retainer Kingo fighting against two unbeatable foes: Gentrification and Modernization. What is the importance of "right" and "wrong" when it comes to the passing of time? What do you do when you swear revenge but then everyone is just, "who cares?" - Allen HuangVIEW TRAILER

When Marnie Was There - Omoide no Marnie (Japan)Directed by Hiromasa Yonebayashi
The (potential) final feature film produced by legendary animation studio Ghibli. Marnie is not an ambitious film but features all the Ghibli notes: a young woman coming-of-age, supernatural occurrences tempered by the simple joys of loving and being loved. Go see it, just because you'll miss it when it's gone. - Allen HuangVIEW TRAILER

May 16, 10:00am @ SIFF Egyptian
May 20, 7:00pm @ SIFF Egyptian

Eastern European & Western European Films

Liza, The Fox-Fairy (Hungary) * TOP PICK *Directed by Károly Ujj-Mészáros
Advertised as the newest Amelie, Liza, the Fox Fairy is a romantic romp featuring off-kilter color palettes and slick editing. Though the Japanophile quirks (especially the poor parodies of Japanese '60s pop) are ultimately an unnecessary and orientalist distraction, the comic timing is on point and the characters are likable enough to guide viewers through the lumpy cultural mish-mash. - Allen Huang

Marshland - La Isla Minima (Spain)Directed by Alberto Rodríguez
A pair of detectives head to southern Spain to investigate the brutal murder of two sisters in 1980. What they unearth is a drug trafficking ring and a possible serial killer looking to strike again. - Peter WoodburnVIEW TRAILER

Next Time I'll Aim For The Heart - La prochaine fois je viserai le coeur (France) * TOP PICK *Directed by Cédric Anger
This is the true story of French serial killer Alain Lamare, who also just happened to be a policeman in charge of investigating his own crimes. Director Cedric Angers tells the story from the killer's point of view, with a strong performance from Guillaume Canet to carry the film as one of the better crime thrillers. - Peter Woodburn

Not All Is Vigil - No todo es vigilia (Spain, Colombia)Directed by Hermes Paralluelo
Old people can be at once adorable and irritating, as is proven in this semi-documentary that follows director Hermes Paralluelo's real grandparents through their daily ups and downs -- which, after so many years, seem to be less ups and downs and more simply just existing, for better or for worse. - Vivian Hua

One Million Dubliners (Ireland)Directed by Aoife Kelleher
This documentary takes a tour of Ireland through the business of death. One Million Dubliners focuses on Ireland's national necropolis, the Glasnevin Cemetery, which hosts more graves than there are living citizens in Dublin. - Peter WoodburnVIEW TRAILER

May 23, 11:00am @ Pacific Place
May 24, 6:30pm @ Harvard Exit

Set Fire To The Stars (United Kingdom)Directed by Andy Goddard
Elijah Wood plays poetry also-ran John Malcom Brinnin, accompanying the unpredictable and wildly talented Dylan Thomas, played by Celyn Jones. Poetry and literature fans will no doubt find much to enjoy in this film, as every line is delivered with the cadence and urgency of a playwright. Those who aren't privy to the figures portrayed in the film will find enjoyment from the interplay of Woods and Jones, who enact the classic Odd Couple jaunt but with a smidgen more class. - Allen HuangVIEW TRAILER

May 15, 7:00pm @ SIFF Cinema Uptown

Vincent - Vincent n'a pas d'écailles (France) * TOP PICK *Directed by Thomas Salvador
Vincent is just a normal French guy working a normal French job until one day he discovers he has superpowers. His normal life suddenly gets turned upside down as much as Vincent aims to redefine what it means to be a superhero film in a world full of Marvel and DC Comics. - Peter WoodburnVIEW TRAILER

Middle Eastern Films

The Color of Pomegranates - Sayat Nova (Armenia) * TOP PICK *Directed by Sergei Parajanov
"Sergei Parajanov's empirical masterpiece loosely follows the life of Sayat Nova, "King of Song," an Armenian poet and musician born in the 18th century, through vibrant sets and costumes and hypnotic shots. This colorful and avant-garde masterpiece provides an utterly transformative cinematic experience." - From the SIFF Website

May 20, 7:00pm @ Harvard Exit

Red Rose (Iran, France, Greece)Directed by Sepideh Farsi
Using a mix of cinéma vérité and up-close intimate moments, director Sepideh Farsi weaves a tale of the relationship of a young, Iranian activist and a passive, middle-aged man as they try and make sense of a changing country during the 2009 Green Revolution. - Peter WoodburnVIEW TRAILER

May 17, 8:00 @ SIFF Cinema Uptown
May 21, 3:30 @ SIFF Cinema Uptown

North American Films

3 1/2 Minutes, Ten Bullets (United States) * TOP PICK *Directed by Marc Silver
In 2012, 17-year-old Jordan Davis was gunned down inside his car all because someone thought his rap music was playing too loud. As racial tensions continue to mount in America, this documentary is an essential accompaniment to the national conversation. - Peter Woodburn

All Things Must Pass (United States)Directed by Colin Hanks
Colin Hanks makes his directoral debut with a look into the rise and fall of Tower Records. The documentary combines insider interviews and archival footage as he chronicles a company that has been one of the biggest players in the changing music industry of the past decade. - Peter Woodburn

May 30, 7:00 @ Harvard Exit
May 31, 3:00 @ SIFF Cinema Uptown

The Astrologer (United States)Directed by Craig Denney
"A true WTF archival discovery, this mind-bogglingly off-the-wall '70s flick is a maniacal tribute to DIY filmmaking that tells the director/star/astrologer's "true" story of discovering psychic powers and using them to become a continent-hopping expert on astrology, diamond-smuggling, and film production. And some other things. Really anything." - From the SIFF WebsiteVIEW TRAILER

May 24, 11:55pm @ SIFF Cinema Egyptian

Experimenter (United States) * TOP PICK *Directed by Michael Almereyda
Almost everyone knows of famed social psychologist Stanley Milgram, who changed the face of the entire field thanks to his "obedience experiments". Experimenter, a biopic which features a star cast of Peter Sarsgaard as Stanley Milgram and Winona Ryder as his wife, sheds light on the passionate and controversial researcher. - Vivian Hua

H. (United States, Argentina) * TOP PICK *Directed by Daniel Garcia, Rania Attieh
Set in Troy, New York, H. is an off-kilter drama that takes place during strangely apocalpytic days. After a meteor-like object explodes in the sky, nearby residents awaken suddenly to find that they had slept through entire days while physics goes haywire: coffee leaks through cups and water flows backwards.H. is somehow co-sponsored by Gucci and finds its strength in sound and experimentation that helps tell its increasingly psychedelic tale. - Vivian Hua

License to Operate (United States) * TOP PICK *Directed by James Lipetzky
"License to Operate" makes its world premiere at SIFF. The documentary showcases the LTOs in Los Angeles, a term given to gang members who are leaders and hold power based on actions of their past. Only these leaders are trying to rebuild their community and stop the cycle of gang violence they were not only a part of, but helped proliferate in their pasts. - Peter Woodburn

May 26, 8:00 @ SIFF Cinema Uptown
May 27, 3:45 @ SIFF Cinema Uptown

natural history (United States)Directed by James Benning
"Posited by the museum's director Christian Koeberl as possibly Benning's only work shot indoors, the 77-minute natural history is a series of almost entirely still, almost entirely humanless shots inside the museum, essentially alternating, or nearly so, images from the archives—not the exhibits—of the museum's collection with images of corridors, hallways, offices, and other rooms hidden within the building." - Mubi.com

May 16, 8:00pm @ SIFF Film Center
May 17, 4:30pm @ SIFF Film Center

Wet Bum (Canada)Directed by Lindsay MacKay
14-year-old Sarah (Julia Sarah Stone) delivers a stellar performance of a girl who explores the horrors and humiliation that is life in middle school and high school. Sarah finds herself most comfortable when in the water, which begins to lead to a confusing relationship with her flirtatious swim instructor. - Peter WoodburnVIEW TRAILER

A Second Chance (Denmark, Sweden)Directed by Susanne Bier
Academy Award-winning director Susanne Bier (Brothers) is back with a psycological drama that tells the story of a mourning police officer switching his recently deceased child with a junkie's neglected infant. - Peter WoodburnVIEW TRAILER

Itsi Bitsi (Denmark, Croatia, Sweden, Argentina)Directed by Ole Christian Madsen
The Danish psychedelic band Steppeulven are the subject of this biopic. Set in the 1960s, this story of counterculture music, sex and a lot of drugs brings the birth of a Danish version of Captain Beefheart. - Peter WoodburnVIEW TRAILER

Out of Nature - Mot Naturen (Norway)Directed by Marte Vold, Ole Giæver
Martin is a socially awkward Norwegian who goes on a hike to try and help resolve the conflicts of his personal demons. Set against the flawless Norwegian countryside, Out of Nature is a hilarious piece about introspection and contemplation. - Peter WoodburnVIEW TRAILER

Paris of the North - París norðursins (Iceland)Directed by Hafsteinn Gunnar Sigurdsson
Recovering alcoholic Hugi has to get a new start, so he decides to move away from Reykjavik to a small fishing town in northwest Iceland. Everything is going fine, until Hugi's hard-drinking father arrives. His first film, Either Way, screened at SIFF in 2012. - Peter WoodburnVIEW TRAILER

SIFF 2015 (Seattle International Film Festival) really shows off its vitality as the longest film festival in North America this year. Operating a host of its own theatres this year, from the SIFF Cinema Uptown and SIFF Cinema to the newly acquired SIFF Egyptian, SIFF is going strong, and this year, many of our top picks are centered around recent political happenings, music trends, food, murder, and freedom.

Schedules are subject to change, so please consult the official festival website before you head out!

SIFF 2015 (Seattle International Film Festival 2015) Top Film Picks

African Films

Beats of the Antonov (Sudan)Directed by Hajooj Kuka
In an area of the world completely torn asunder by war, the one thing South Sudan can hold on to is their vibrant musical culture as citizens are forced into refugee camps to survive. Hajooj Kuka takes a look at the resilience of the Sudanese communities in these terrible situations. - Peter WoodburnVIEW TRAILERMay 21, 6:30 @ SIFF Cinema Uptown
May 22, 4:00 @ Pacific Place 11

Australian & Pacific Islander Films

Charlie's Country (Australia) * TOP PICK *Directed by Rolf de Heer
An out-of-sorts and aging aboriginal named Charlie paints tree bark and fishes most days, but feels increasingly estranged from the Australia of his youth. The last straw comes when police confiscate Charlie's spear as a weapon, prompting him to leave his community and head out indeterminately into "the bush." But the new Australia isn't done with him yet. Charlie's Country is a heartbreaking portrayal of a changing world with little respect for marginalized peoples. Best Actor (David Gulpilil), Cannes Film Festival. - Aaron BrunerMay 15, 4:00 @ Harvard Exit
May 16, 9:30 @ Harvard Exit

Carribean Films

Behavior - Conducta (Cuba) * TOP PICK *Directed by Ernesto Daranas
A polarizing hit in its home country, this rare film from Cuba chronicles the drama that ensues after a seasoned school teacher makes it her mission to remove her student from a governmental re-education facility. - Vivian HuaMay 15, 3:30pm @ Lincoln Square Cinemas Cinema
May 17, 6:00pm @ SIFF Cinema Uptown
May 19, 3:30pm @ SIFF Cinema Uptown

East Asian & Southeast Asian Films

A Hard Day (South Korea)Directed by Seong-hun Kim
Homicide detective Ko Gun-soo accidentally commits a hit and run on a lonely stretch of highway. As he quickly tries to hide evidence and cover his tracks, his life goes from bad to worse in this South Korean thriller. - Peter WoodburnVIEW TRAILERMay 19, 9:30pm @ SIFF Cinema Uptown
May 20, 9:30pm @ SIFF Egyptian

Big Father, Small Father and Other Stories - Cha và con và (Vietnam, France, Germany)
* TOP PICK *Directed by Phan Dang Di
Modern Saigon is seen in all its raw, bold, and sensuous colors, when viewed through the eyes of three promiscuous youngsters who explore their own boundaries without fear. - Vivian HuaJune 3, 9:30pm @ Harvard Exit
June 5, 12:30pm @ SIFF Cinema Uptown

Daughter - Dukhtar (Pakistan)Directed by Afia Nathaniel
In old-school dramatic fashion, this film from Pakistan follows the journey of a mother and her ten-year-old daughter as they flee from an arranged wedding with a local tribal leader, through cityscapes and natural formations. - Vivian HuaVIEW TRAILERMay 20, 9:30pm @ AMC Pacific Place 11
May 21, 4:30pm @ AMC Pacific Place 11

The Golden Era - Huang Jin Shi Dai (China, Hong Kong)Directed by Ann HuiThe Golden Era focuses on five years in the life of Xio Hang, a political writer and influencer during the 1930s. The film offers insight on the Chinese political climate of that time as well as weaves in her philosophical musings: "I cannot choose how I will live or how I will die, but I can choose how I love and how I live. This is the freedom that I want. My Golden Era."
VIEW TRAILERMay 23, 1:30pm @ SIFF Cinema Uptown
May 24, 7:30pm @ Renton IKEA Performing Arts Center
May 30, 9:00pm @ SIFF Cinema Uptown

How To Win At Checkers (Every Time) (Thailand, USA, Indonesia, Hong Kong)Directed by Josh Kim
A well-shot but not overly slick coming-of-age film, Checkers tells the story of Oat, his older brother Ek, and the military draft lottery that comes for every Thai man at age 21. The film's use of Thailand's complex sexual spectrum as a subtle backdrop rather than the main focus is a refreshing conceit. The film does a wonderful job of showing the character of Thailand, as well as telling a fairly compelling story of growing up and brotherly love. - Allen HuangVIEW TRAILERMay 20, 9:30pm @ SIFF Cinema Uptown
May 27 4:30pm @ SIFF Cinema Uptown

Little Forest (Japan) * TOP PICK *Directed by Junichi Mori
This gargantuan, four-part series has to be the quietest, most insular movie featured at this year's festival. This film is about two things: the beautiful Japanese countryside and cooking. The food looks good, the scenery is wonderful, and everything else doesn't matter. Each portion represents a season, and features the delicious foods you can cook using sources found/harvested during that period. Pure audio/visual catnip. - Allen HuangMay 18, 6:30pm @ SIFF Cinema Uptown
May 24, 12:00pm @ SIFF Cinema Uptown

A Matter of Interpretation (South Korea) * TOP PICK *Directed by Kwang-kuk Lee
A talky, Jarmusch-esque meditation on life transitions and dreams. The film's convoluted structure (yes, dreams within dreams) is confounding at times, but the excellent acting of Shin Dong Mi provides the necessary compass for one's enjoyment. The Korean language can be very nuanced and clever; this film aims to show just how. - Allen HuangMay 28, 8:30pm @ Lincoln Square Cinemas
May 29, 9:30pm @ Harvard Exit
May 31, 1:30pm @ Harvard Exit

Snow on the Blades - Zakurozaka no Adauchi (Japan) * TOP PICK *Directed by Setsuro Wakamatsu
A tangentially relevant take on the Samurai Vengeance trope, Snow on the Blades has fallen retainer Kingo fighting against two unbeatable foes: Gentrification and Modernization. What is the importance of "right" and "wrong" when it comes to the passing of time? What do you do when you swear revenge but then everyone is just, "who cares?" - Allen HuangVIEW TRAILERMay 16, 6:00pm @ SIFF Egyptian
May 17, 1:30pm @ Harvard Exit
May 18, 6:00pm @ Lincoln Square Cinemas

When Marnie Was There - Omoide no Marnie (Japan)Directed by Hiromasa Yonebayashi
The (potential) final feature film produced by legendary animation studio Ghibli. Marnie is not an ambitious film but features all the Ghibli notes: a young woman coming-of-age, supernatural occurrences tempered by the simple joys of loving and being loved. Go see it, just because you'll miss it when it's gone. - Allen HuangVIEW TRAILERMay 16, 10:00am @ SIFF Egyptian
May 20, 7:00pm @ SIFF Egyptian

Eastern European & Western European Films

Liza, The Fox-Fairy (Hungary) * TOP PICK *Directed by Károly Ujj-Mészáros
Advertised as the newest Amelie, Liza, the Fox Fairy is a romantic romp featuring off-kilter color palettes and slick editing. Though the Japanophile quirks (especially the poor parodies of Japanese '60s pop) are ultimately an unnecessary and orientalist distraction, the comic timing is on point and the characters are likable enough to guide viewers through the lumpy cultural mish-mash. - Allen Huang May 25, 12:00pm @ Renton IKEA Performing Arts Center
June 3, 8:30pm @ SIFF Cinema Uptown
June 5, 3:45pm @ Pacific Place

Next Time I'll Aim For The Heart - La prochaine fois je viserai le coeur (France) * TOP PICK *Directed by Cédric Anger
This is the true story of French serial killer Alain Lamare, who also just happened to be a policeman in charge of investigating his own crimes. Director Cedric Angers tells the story from the killer's point of view, with a strong performance from Guillaume Canet to carry the film as one of the better crime thrillers. - Peter WoodburnMay 31, 9:45pm @ SIFF Egyptian
June 2, 9:45pm @ SIFF Egyptian
June 3 @ 8:30pm @ Kirkland Performance Center

Not All Is Vigil - No todo es vigilia (Spain, Colombia)Directed by Hermes Paralluelo
Old people can be at once adorable and irritating, as is proven in this semi-documentary that follows director Hermes Paralluelo's real grandparents through their daily ups and downs -- which, after so many years, seem to be less ups and downs and more simply just existing, for better or for worse. - Vivian HuaMay 31, 6:00pm @ Lincoln Square Cinemas
June 1, 7:00pm @ AMC Pacific Place 11

One Million Dubliners (Ireland)Directed by Aoife Kelleher
This documentary takes a tour of Ireland through the business of death. One Million Dubliners focuses on Ireland's national necropolis, the Glasnevin Cemetery, which hosts more graves than there are living citizens in Dublin. - Peter WoodburnVIEW TRAILERMay 23, 11:00am @ Pacific Place
May 24, 6:30pm @ Harvard Exit

Set Fire To The Stars (United Kingdom)Directed by Andy Goddard
Elijah Wood plays poetry also-ran John Malcom Brinnin, accompanying the unpredictable and wildly talented Dylan Thomas, played by Celyn Jones. Poetry and literature fans will no doubt find much to enjoy in this film, as every line is delivered with the cadence and urgency of a playwright. Those who aren't privy to the figures portrayed in the film will find enjoyment from the interplay of Woods and Jones, who enact the classic Odd Couple jaunt but with a smidgen more class. - Allen HuangVIEW TRAILERMay 15, 7:00pm @ SIFF Cinema Uptown

Vincent - Vincent n'a pas d'écailles (France) * TOP PICK *Directed by Thomas Salvador
Vincent is just a normal French guy working a normal French job until one day he discovers he has superpowers. His normal life suddenly gets turned upside down as much as Vincent aims to redefine what it means to be a superhero film in a world full of Marvel and DC Comics. - Peter WoodburnVIEW TRAILERMay 25, 3:30pm @ SIFF Cinema Uptown
May 28, 6:00pm @ Lincoln Square Cinemas

Middle Eastern Films

The Color of Pomegranates - Sayat Nova (Armenia) * TOP PICK *Directed by Sergei Parajanov
"Sergei Parajanov's empirical masterpiece loosely follows the life of Sayat Nova, "King of Song," an Armenian poet and musician born in the 18th century, through vibrant sets and costumes and hypnotic shots. This colorful and avant-garde masterpiece provides an utterly transformative cinematic experience." - From the SIFF WebsiteMay 20, 7:00pm @ Harvard Exit

Red Rose (Iran, France, Greece)Directed by Sepideh Farsi
Using a mix of cinéma vérité and up-close intimate moments, director Sepideh Farsi weaves a tale of the relationship of a young, Iranian activist and a passive, middle-aged man as they try and make sense of a changing country during the 2009 Green Revolution. - Peter WoodburnVIEW TRAILERMay 17, 8:00 @ SIFF Cinema Uptown
May 21, 3:30 @ SIFF Cinema Uptown

North American Films

3 1/2 Minutes, Ten Bullets (United States) * TOP PICK *Directed by Marc Silver
In 2012, 17-year-old Jordan Davis was gunned down inside his car all because someone thought his rap music was playing too loud. As racial tensions continue to mount in America, this documentary is an essential accompaniment to the national conversation. - Peter WoodburnJune 2, 7:00 @ The Egyptian
June 3, 6:00 @ Kirkland Performance Center

All Things Must Pass (United States)Directed by Colin Hanks
Colin Hanks makes his directoral debut with a look into the rise and fall of Tower Records. The documentary combines insider interviews and archival footage as he chronicles a company that has been one of the biggest players in the changing music industry of the past decade. - Peter WoodburnMay 30, 7:00 @ Harvard Exit
May 31, 3:00 @ SIFF Cinema Uptown

The Astrologer (United States)Directed by Craig Denney
"A true WTF archival discovery, this mind-bogglingly off-the-wall '70s flick is a maniacal tribute to DIY filmmaking that tells the director/star/astrologer's "true" story of discovering psychic powers and using them to become a continent-hopping expert on astrology, diamond-smuggling, and film production. And some other things. Really anything." - From the SIFF WebsiteVIEW TRAILERMay 24, 11:55pm @ SIFF Cinema Egyptian

Experimenter (United States) * TOP PICK *Directed by Michael Almereyda
Almost everyone knows of famed social psychologist Stanley Milgram, who changed the face of the entire field thanks to his "obedience experiments". Experimenter, a biopic which features a star cast of Peter Sarsgaard as Stanley Milgram and Winona Ryder as his wife, sheds light on the passionate and controversial researcher. - Vivian HuaJune 4, 6:30pm @ SIFF Cinema Uptown
June 6, 1:30pm @ SIFF Cinema Uptown

H. (United States, Argentina) * TOP PICK *Directed by Daniel Garcia, Rania Attieh
Set in Troy, New York, H. is an off-kilter drama that takes place during strangely apocalpytic days. After a meteor-like object explodes in the sky, nearby residents awaken suddenly to find that they had slept through entire days while physics goes haywire: coffee leaks through cups and water flows backwards.H. is somehow co-sponsored by Gucci and finds its strength in sound and experimentation that helps tell its increasingly psychedelic tale. - Vivian HuaMay 25, 6:30pm @ AMC Pacific Place 11
May 28, 4:00pm @ SIFF Cinema Uptown

License to Operate (United States) * TOP PICK *Directed by James Lipetzky
"License to Operate" makes its world premiere at SIFF. The documentary showcases the LTOs in Los Angeles, a term given to gang members who are leaders and hold power based on actions of their past. Only these leaders are trying to rebuild their community and stop the cycle of gang violence they were not only a part of, but helped proliferate in their pasts. - Peter WoodburnMay 26, 8:00 @ SIFF Cinema Uptown
May 27, 3:45 @ SIFF Cinema Uptown

natural history (United States)Directed by James Benning
"Posited by the museum's director Christian Koeberl as possibly Benning's only work shot indoors, the 77-minute natural history is a series of almost entirely still, almost entirely humanless shots inside the museum, essentially alternating, or nearly so, images from the archives—not the exhibits—of the museum's collection with images of corridors, hallways, offices, and other rooms hidden within the building." - Mubi.comMay 16, 8:00pm @ SIFF Film Center
May 17, 4:30pm @ SIFF Film Center

Wet Bum (Canada)Directed by Lindsay MacKay
14-year-old Sarah (Julia Sarah Stone) delivers a stellar performance of a girl who explores the horrors and humiliation that is life in middle school and high school. Sarah finds herself most comfortable when in the water, which begins to lead to a confusing relationship with her flirtatious swim instructor. - Peter WoodburnVIEW TRAILERMay 20, 6:00pm @ SIFF Cinema Uptown
May 30, 11:00am @ Pacific Place
May 31, 5:30pm @ SIFF Cinema Uptown

Itsi Bitsi (Denmark, Croatia, Sweden, Argentina)Directed by Ole Christian Madsen
The Danish psychedelic band Steppeulven are the subject of this biopic. Set in the 1960s, this story of counterculture music, sex and a lot of drugs brings the birth of a Danish version of Captain Beefheart. - Peter WoodburnVIEW TRAILERMay 21, 9:30 @ SIFF Cinema Uptown
May 27, 8:30 @ Lincoln Square Cinemas
May 31, 9:30 @ Pacific Place

Out of Nature - Mot Naturen (Norway)Directed by Marte Vold, Ole Giæver
Martin is a socially awkward Norwegian who goes on a hike to try and help resolve the conflicts of his personal demons. Set against the flawless Norwegian countryside, Out of Nature is a hilarious piece about introspection and contemplation. - Peter WoodburnVIEW TRAILERMay 24, 6:00pm @ Lincoln Square Cinemas
June 1, 4:30pm @ SIFF Egyptian
June 3, 9:30pm @ SIFF Cinema Uptown

Paris of the North - París norðursins (Iceland)Directed by Hafsteinn Gunnar Sigurdsson
Recovering alcoholic Hugi has to get a new start, so he decides to move away from Reykjavik to a small fishing town in northwest Iceland. Everything is going fine, until Hugi's hard-drinking father arrives. His first film, Either Way, screened at SIFF in 2012. - Peter WoodburnVIEW TRAILERMay 15, 11:30am @ Pacific Place
May 19, 9:00pm @ SIFF Cinema Uptown
May 21, 3:30pm @ Lincoln Square Cinemas

Set almost exclusively in a tiny courtroom, Gett: The Trial of Viviane Amsalem, is an Israeli-French film about a couple's lengthy battle for divorce. Simple from its get-go, the film's major strengths lie in its tense appeal and multiple layers of meaning, which build slowly through use of seemingly trivial gestures. Director-siblings Ronit Elkabetz and Shlomi Elkabetz use the limitations of space, time, and color to give viewers a glimpse into Israeli society, where religious views and patriarchy can dominate female rights.

Throughout its duration, Gett: The Trial of Viviane Amsalem is driven forth by fascinating, dialogue-driven interpersonal exchanges, which trample on with the mind-numbing appeal of a trashy daytime talk show. Time and time again, one hopes to honor Viviane Amsalem's basic request for divorce. but the head-scratching moments come when a number of witnesses appeal throughout the film's two hour duration, giving their contradictory testimonies about the couple's relationship.

But the dialogue is twisted, forked like the tongue of snake, and ever-revealing of mysteries. When Viviane Amsalem takes the stand and is questioned about her public outbursts which humiliated her husband in front of their neighbors, one can feel both skepticism and sympathy when she says, "It's easy to blame the one who yells. The one who whispers venom is innocent." The prosecutor then retaliates with, "He went to hell and back with you, and now you want to shame him?" -- and it is in moments such as this that Gett is impressively confusing. One cannot tell whether the wife or the husband is at fault, and the reality is that perhaps neither were, or both were. Much of Gett requires a thorough read between the lines, for every contentious point that is stated explicitly is bolstered by body language and assumptions which are unstated. What begins as clear and straight-forward becomes increasingly muddled with every insight from every friend, neighbor, or spiritual colleague, and the isolated clips of Viviane shedding tears are spliced in between testimonies with very little explanation.

Perhaps they are simply incompatible, and their fundamental differences alone are one cause of the never-ending divorce battle, which spans more than three years of humiliation and awkwardness on the part of both parties.

Nonetheless, it is with the spoken words and the easy-to-define problems that the film hinges. Her nature is secular while he is religious; he lacks romantic sensibility where she desires it. All of these incompatibilities float to the surface through intelligently written expressions, which accuse both parties with almost either weight. Yet in Israel's religious court, the fact that Viviane's husband, Elisha, provides for her financially and has never beaten her is lauded as an impressive accomplishment; the court hence cannot "force" the divorce, since domestic abuse was never at play. The basic rights of Viviane Amsalem are discounted time and time again in favor or a wife's "sacred" duties, even in the view of her relatives and female neighbors. Their reasons against divorce are many and are symptomatic of Israeli society: a single female in Israel lacks fruitful options for her future; Elisha is an upstanding and dependable member of society; and so on. In matters of the heart, Israel is vastly different from the Western world, and through the mechanism of divorce, Gett provides a dramatic glimpse into those differences.

Set in the same room and featuring the same characters who argue endlessly about the same situation, Gett could easily become a boring film, but complex balances make it successful. The relationship of Viviane and Elisha, in all its hopelessness and civility, manifests through their character traits as both address them directly with words, and as such, and the film's recursive nature finds great power in its spoken dialogue as well as the lines unspoken and the gestures unexplained.

Set almost exclusively in a tiny courtroom, Gett: The Trial of Viviane Amsalem, is an Israeli-French film about a couple's lengthy battle for divorce. Simple from its get-go, the film's major strengths lie in its tense appeal and multiple layers of meaning, which build slowly through use of seemingly trivial gestures. Director-siblings Ronit Elkabetz and Shlomi Elkabetz use the limitations of space, time, and color to give viewers a glimpse into Israeli society, where religious views and patriarchy can dominate female rights.

Throughout its duration, Gett: The Trial of Viviane Amsalem is driven forth by fascinating, dialogue-driven interpersonal exchanges, which trample on with the mind-numbing appeal of a trashy daytime talk show. Time and time again, one hopes to honor Viviane Amsalem's basic request for divorce. but the head-scratching moments come when a number of witnesses appeal throughout the film's two hour duration, giving their contradictory testimonies about the couple's relationship.
But the dialogue is twisted, forked like the tongue of snake, and ever-revealing of mysteries. When Viviane Amsalem takes the stand and is questioned about her public outbursts which humiliated her husband in front of their neighbors, one can feel both skepticism and sympathy when she says, "It's easy to blame the one who yells. The one who whispers venom is innocent." The prosecutor then retaliates with, "He went to hell and back with you, and now you want to shame him?" -- and it is in moments such as this that Gett is impressively confusing. One cannot tell whether the wife or the husband is at fault, and the reality is that perhaps neither were, or both were. Much of Gett requires a thorough read between the lines, for every contentious point that is stated explicitly is bolstered by body language and assumptions which are unstated. What begins as clear and straight-forward becomes increasingly muddled with every insight from every friend, neighbor, or spiritual colleague, and the isolated clips of Viviane shedding tears are spliced in between testimonies with very little explanation.
Perhaps they are simply incompatible, and their fundamental differences alone are one cause of the never-ending divorce battle, which spans more than three years of humiliation and awkwardness on the part of both parties.
Nonetheless, it is with the spoken words and the easy-to-define problems that the film hinges. Her nature is secular while he is religious; he lacks romantic sensibility where she desires it. All of these incompatibilities float to the surface through intelligently written expressions, which accuse both parties with almost either weight. Yet in Israel's religious court, the fact that Viviane's husband, Elisha, provides for her financially and has never beaten her is lauded as an impressive accomplishment; the court hence cannot "force" the divorce, since domestic abuse was never at play. The basic rights of Viviane Amsalem are discounted time and time again in favor or a wife's "sacred" duties, even in the view of her relatives and female neighbors. Their reasons against divorce are many and are symptomatic of Israeli society: a single female in Israel lacks fruitful options for her future; Elisha is an upstanding and dependable member of society; and so on. In matters of the heart, Israel is vastly different from the Western world, and through the mechanism of divorce, Gett provides a dramatic glimpse into those differences.
Set in the same room and featuring the same characters who argue endlessly about the same situation, Gett could easily become a boring film, but complex balances make it successful. The relationship of Viviane and Elisha, in all its hopelessness and civility, manifests through their character traits as both address them directly with words, and as such, and the film's recursive nature finds great power in its spoken dialogue as well as the lines unspoken and the gestures unexplained.
Ω

For much of the nation, seeing dams on rivers is just as standard as seeing exit signs on the interstate. That's understandable, considering that there are tens of thousands of dams of varying sizes staggered rivers throughout the nation; dams have changed the landscape arguably more dramatically than humans alone ever have. Outside of providing power, dams protect towns at risk of mother nature's wrath and allowed the land west of the Rockies to be settled as it is now.

So why then, doesn't a documentary called DamNation focus on the greatness of dams? The answer is simple, really. When U.S. policies extended infrastructures in the past, much of it inevitably exploited natural resources, much to the blind eye of the general public. With their gorgeously shot look at the mighty dam and its influence on human culture in the United States, directors Ben Knight and Travis Rummel aimed to showcase exactly that exploitation.

"It was kind of embarrassing how little I knew about dams when I started working on this film... Dams don't just blend in as part of a landscape anymore. Knowing what I know now, it's impossible for me to look at dams in the same way as I did a few years ago -- or even rivers, for that matter. Dams and hydropower represent a pivotal part of U.S. history; there's no denying that. But just like any other resource development in the U.S., we took it too far." - Ben Knight, Director of DamNation

Without a doubt, Dam Nation has an agenda from its get-go; it is sponsored by outdoor clothing company Patagonia, for starters, and uses many historical examples of dam-related devastation, such as floods and the destruction of watersheds and critical salmon runs, to illustrate its point. Few dam proponents speak on camera -- though to be fair, the filmmakers were quick to point out that no pro-dam politicians would agree to speak with them. Luckily, they were lucky enough to attain clips from open political hearings, and Chairman Doc Hastings, who is quite outspoken on the issue, was quoted in-depth.

"Some people seem to have forgotten that before the era of dam construction, the endless cycle of withering droughts and violent floods constantly plagued our watersheds. Our dams tamed these environmentally-devastating events. They turned deserts into oases and laid the foundation for a century of growth and prosperity for the American West. But over the last few decades, a radical and retrograde ideology has seized our public policy," says Chairman Doc Hastings, at a public hearing. "It springs from the bizarre notion that Mother Earth must be restored to her pristine, prehistoric condition, even if it means restoring the human population to its pristine prehistoric condition."

Hastings then goes on to say that a world without dams would be one where power was rationed out in dim homes, and that those in favor of dam removals are comprised of the "lunatic fringe of our society". Naturally, he was speaking to a group of individuals very much in line with his own agenda, and his words seem to be on the "lunatic fringe of our society" to those who might oppose his opinion. In this sense, Hastings' words bear some documentary itself, which one might argue is effective mostly in preaching to the naturalist choir.

DamNation uses a number of case studies, primarily on dams throughout the Pacific Northwest, to highlight current trends in dam removals and the reasons they are beneficial for local habitats and communities. One main example was found in the Elwha and Glines Canyon Dams on Washington State's Olympic Peninsula. After twenty years of community and political discussion, the dams were removed in 2011, costing taxpayers over $360 million dollars -- one of the largest dam removal projects to date in the United States. DamNation weighs in on the issue with facts about how these dams were illegal to begin with; national policies dictated that as early as 1973, any dams which blocked the migration patterns of fish would be illegal, and these dams indeed fell under that description.

Nonetheless, these discussions on the impact of dams and salmon runs sometimes derails the conversation slightly. The documentary hopes to describe the impact that dam removals have upon the nation, and this overall concept is solid -- but because dams are a subject that few people focus on, laying a bit more groundwork is required early on. Knight skips rather quickly over the history of dam-building and talks only briefly about how intermixing between wild salmon and farmed salmon has negative impacts upon the salmon species. Instead, plenty of time is spent talking with Earth-friendly groups who did dam-related guerilla art protests in the '80s, and on Knight's adventure through the locks of four dams on the Snake River -- both of which are interesting, but fail to further the overall mission of the film.

Dam Nation is a wonderful combination between archival and modern footage and is very much a documentary worth watching, but it will struggle to find an audience outside of those who are already in support of dam removals. On aesthetic cinematographic appeal alone, DamNation is easy on the eyes and worth watching. Unlike most documentaries, however, you won’t leave feeling the passion burn inside your heart -- though it may answer questions about why, in 1995, the Clinton-appointed Bureau of Reclamation commissioner, Dan Beard, stated, "The Bureau's future is not in dams. The era of dams is over."

For much of the nation, seeing dams on rivers is just as standard as seeing exit signs on the interstate. That's understandable, considering that there are tens of thousands of dams of varying sizes staggered rivers throughout the nation; dams have changed the landscape arguably more dramatically than humans alone ever have. Outside of providing power, dams protect towns at risk of mother nature's wrath and allowed the land west of the Rockies to be settled as it is now.
So why then, doesn't a documentary called DamNation focus on the greatness of dams? The answer is simple, really. When U.S. policies extended infrastructures in the past, much of it inevitably exploited natural resources, much to the blind eye of the general public. With their gorgeously shot look at the mighty dam and its influence on human culture in the United States, directors Ben Knight and Travis Rummel aimed to showcase exactly that exploitation.

"It was kind of embarrassing how little I knew about dams when I started working on this film... Dams don't just blend in as part of a landscape anymore. Knowing what I know now, it's impossible for me to look at dams in the same way as I did a few years ago -- or even rivers, for that matter. Dams and hydropower represent a pivotal part of U.S. history; there's no denying that. But just like any other resource development in the U.S., we took it too far." - Ben Knight, Director of DamNation

Without a doubt, Dam Nation has an agenda from its get-go; it is sponsored by outdoor clothing company Patagonia, for starters, and uses many historical examples of dam-related devastation, such as floods and the destruction of watersheds and critical salmon runs, to illustrate its point. Few dam proponents speak on camera -- though to be fair, the filmmakers were quick to point out that no pro-dam politicians would agree to speak with them. Luckily, they were lucky enough to attain clips from open political hearings, and Chairman Doc Hastings, who is quite outspoken on the issue, was quoted in-depth.
"Some people seem to have forgotten that before the era of dam construction, the endless cycle of withering droughts and violent floods constantly plagued our watersheds. Our dams tamed these environmentally-devastating events. They turned deserts into oases and laid the foundation for a century of growth and prosperity for the American West. But over the last few decades, a radical and retrograde ideology has seized our public policy," says Chairman Doc Hastings, at a public hearing. "It springs from the bizarre notion that Mother Earth must be restored to her pristine, prehistoric condition, even if it means restoring the human population to its pristine prehistoric condition."
Hastings then goes on to say that a world without dams would be one where power was rationed out in dim homes, and that those in favor of dam removals are comprised of the "lunatic fringe of our society". Naturally, he was speaking to a group of individuals very much in line with his own agenda, and his words seem to be on the "lunatic fringe of our society" to those who might oppose his opinion. In this sense, Hastings' words bear some documentary itself, which one might argue is effective mostly in preaching to the naturalist choir.

DamNation uses a number of case studies, primarily on dams throughout the Pacific Northwest, to highlight current trends in dam removals and the reasons they are beneficial for local habitats and communities. One main example was found in the Elwha and Glines Canyon Dams on Washington State's Olympic Peninsula. After twenty years of community and political discussion, the dams were removed in 2011, costing taxpayers over $360 million dollars -- one of the largest dam removal projects to date in the United States. DamNation weighs in on the issue with facts about how these dams were illegal to begin with; national policies dictated that as early as 1973, any dams which blocked the migration patterns of fish would be illegal, and these dams indeed fell under that description.
Nonetheless, these discussions on the impact of dams and salmon runs sometimes derails the conversation slightly. The documentary hopes to describe the impact that dam removals have upon the nation, and this overall concept is solid -- but because dams are a subject that few people focus on, laying a bit more groundwork is required early on. Knight skips rather quickly over the history of dam-building and talks only briefly about how intermixing between wild salmon and farmed salmon has negative impacts upon the salmon species. Instead, plenty of time is spent talking with Earth-friendly groups who did dam-related guerilla art protests in the '80s, and on Knight's adventure through the locks of four dams on the Snake River -- both of which are interesting, but fail to further the overall mission of the film.
Dam Nation is a wonderful combination between archival and modern footage and is very much a documentary worth watching, but it will struggle to find an audience outside of those who are already in support of dam removals. On aesthetic cinematographic appeal alone, DamNation is easy on the eyes and worth watching. Unlike most documentaries, however, you won’t leave feeling the passion burn inside your heart -- though it may answer questions about why, in 1995, the Clinton-appointed Bureau of Reclamation commissioner, Dan Beard, stated, "The Bureau's future is not in dams. The era of dams is over."
Ω

Folklorists like to romanticize blues music as being a pure expression of culture, but recorded blues music was carefully marketed to its intended audience from its very beginning. As early as the 1920s, music aimed at African-Americans was labeled as "race music", and the best way to advertise it was in the pages of African-American newspapers. These newspapers had a wide circulation among urban African-Americans and even in parts of the South, where they were treated as contraband and discretely shared.

While living in Arkansas, the singer Big Bill Broonzy recalled furtively reading the most famous of these newspapers, The Chicago Defender, and he made the move to Chicago in part because of what he had learned in the newspaper. Broonzy said that Black readers of the Defender were seen as brave, as it was a newspaper that promoted Black migration to the North, criticized racism in the South, and pushed for social change.1

These record advertisements were critical in selling records, as they often carried coupons that could be mailed back to the companies in exchange for the music. Mark Dolan, a professor of Journalism at the University of Mississippi, writes that, "These lavishly illustrated ads told of broken love affairs, loneliness, violence and jail, in concert with travel to and from the South-by train and boat, on foot and in memory-despite the Defender's editorial stance urging Black southerners to leave the region."2 It might seem strange, then, that the Defender had numerous record advertisements that nostalgized the South and referred to hard times in northern cities, a message at odds with the newspaper's founding principles.3

Recent arrivals in Chicago and elsewhere found life in the north to be alien and difficult. Audiences looking for familiar reassurances of home looked to blues music, at least in part, to mitigate the harshness of their new surroundings. These advertisements only lasted a short while before the Great Depression swept away most of the record companies, leaving only a few large companies as the survivors. Nevertheless, they offer some insight into blues music at a critical moment in its history as it adapted for a new sort of audience. Seen this way, blues music is not merely a pre-modern art form of rural people, but a highly adaptive art form that was responsive to the needs of its audience.

Songs of the South

Roughly 1.6 million African-Americans left the South and moved to cities in the North during the 1920s. Chicago was one of the most popular destinations, due to its economy and the city's reputation as an industrial city. As most of the migrants were from the rural South, they had little relevant work experience that applied to urban trades, and even those with work experience found themselves excluded from most jobs by discriminatory union practices, which left them with the lower-paying and more difficult jobs in stockyards and factories.4 New arrivals to the city tended to congregate in enclaves, such as the South Side of Chicago, partly due to discriminatory housing practices and partly due to their desire to live among other African-Americans.5 The living situations were difficult, especially for people who had perhaps never traveled outside of their home county before.

A music industry for African-Americans was created in that same year. Prior to 1920, record companies largely ignored African-American audiences, possibly out of the belief that they lacked money to spend on records -- but Mamie Smith's "Crazy Blues", which sold over a million copies, opened the door for blues artists. These initial recordings were done with large orchestras, bands, or a piano player, and the performers were, by and large, women. These women were performers in black theater and in cabarets, and their style worked with the very primitive recording techniques of the time, which could not capture softer sounds or stringed instruments easily.

However, the comparatively high wages that these women were paid also led record companies to look elsewhere for talent. The development of the electrical recording process in 1925 made it possible for guitar-driven blues to be recorded in a clearer and more easily-heard way,6 and musicians with guitars began to travel from small towns in the South and into the urban North. The first blues guitarist to hit it big was Blind Lemon Jefferson, a Texas-born musician who was "discovered" in Dallas and brought to Chicago to perform. While there were several guitarists who recorded before Blind Lemon Jefferson, he was the first to achieve star status, and Jefferson was immediately marketed as an authentic Southern musician.

Ads for these blues records were produced to appeal to black consumers, and in preparation, record companies kept black consultants on the payroll to reproduce urban slang for the ads.7 The companies neither understood what they were selling, nor did they care as long as it sold well; distinctions between styles of blues were largely irrelevant to the executives.8 Consultants and musicians were left to shape advertising of the music and the music itself, and talent scouts such as H.C. Speir were an important part of this process. As the major record companies were all headquartered in the North and were usually isolated from the talent -- Paramount Records was based in Grafton, Wisconsin for example -- they relied on scouts working in major cities or the South to find new musicians. As the decade wore on, the companies were recruiting from farther afield, often using record store owners to find local talent, which set off a race for who could find more "Southern-sounding" musicians.

These advertisements are replete with visual images and imaginings of the South and the harshness of the North. The ad for Ida Cox's "Chicago Bound Blues" is a good example, as it depicts a man leaving his girlfriend or wife to head to Chicago. This was a common plight for people living during the Great Migration as families were separated and relationships dissolved when people left. Songs were described in these ads in deliberately ambiguous ways, almost as though as the ending or story was being concealed. It was an effective hook, which spoke to familiar problems that the targeted audiences had experienced.

A number of blues songs give us insight into the nostalgic reasons that migrants looked back to the South, often using a number of loosely connected images that build to convey a singer's feelings rather than a firm narrative. Papi Charlie Jackson references the cold of the North in "I'm Going Where The Chilly Winds Don't Blow", where he sings of getting off the train in Jacksonville; Blind Blake's "Georgia Bound" begins with him mentioning he too wants to catch the southbound train and that he's "walked out my shoes over this ice and snow." Later, he says that, "The South is on my mind, my blues won't go away," and he concludes the song with images familiar to Southern listeners -- of "watermelon on the vine" and wanting to "get back to that Georgia gal of mine."

Of any musician, however, Blind Lemon Jefferson perhaps best embodies the desire to evoke Southern nostalgia. His first appearance in an advertisement pitched his music as "real old-fashioned blues by a real old-fashioned blues singer" and emphasized the "Southern" style of his playing. Of course, as music historian David Evans notes, Jefferson's music was distinctive and innovative; Evans goes so far as to speculate that Jefferson's unusual harmonics in his songs was the result of him adapting jazz techniques to blues music.9 Nevertheless, if Jefferson's musical style was part of an ongoing and developing approach, his lyrical references to the South are commonplace, as in "Dry Southern Blues", which begins with him saying, "My mind leads me to take a trip down south." Even Jefferson's songs that don't explicitly deal with the South refer to his Texas heritage. "Chock House Blues" includes the lines "Baby, I can't drink whiskey, but I'm a fool ‘bout my homemade wine/ Ain't no sense in leavin' Dallas, they makes it there all the time."

This desire to project a Southern aura upon musicians may also have dictated the way that record labels named and labeled musicians. Mississippi John Hurt is probably the best example, in part because his name contributed to his eventual rediscovery. Okeh Records sold John Hurt as "Mississippi John Hurt," likely because saying that he was from Mississippi was a way to tout his credentials or authenticity as a bluesman. Musicians like the Mississippi Sheiks and Henry "Ragtime Texas" Thomas got the same treatment, and so did "The Mississippi Moaner", when somebody at the Vocalion label decided that the little-known musician Isaiah Nettles needed more spark. Geography, in this case, bestowed a certain musical pedigree.

Concurrently, much of the same phenomenon was happening with so-called white "Hillbilly" music, which we now recognize today as country music. As railroads and textile mills were being built in the South, industrialization led to an influx of poor whites seeking work in rapidly expanding cities in the Carolinas, such as Richmond, Durham, and Charlotte. Many of these people were coming from Appalachia, one of the poorest and least developed parts of the United States. The migration and subsequent settlement in urban areas created a new class of consumers who were familiar with traditional music and formed a record-buying class as well as a class of musicians. Though the marketing of white country music was similar to that of blues music, as it depicted familial displacement from a traditional way of life. In an advertisement for Fiddlin' Powers and Family, Victor notes that "Fiddlin' Powers and his family come from the mountains of Tennessee with some records of old-time American music-songs and dances." Likewise, Gid Tanner's music is advertised as "Old Familiar Tunes."

Lookin' For a Home

The senses are probably the most obvious gateway to nostalgia. Proust's Remembrance of Things Past is set in motion by the eating of a Madeleine. It's not surprising, then, that music can trigger those same feelings of nostalgia, especially when that music is anchored to a specific time and place now lost to the listener. Academic literature on nostalgia is surprisingly sparse, but there are some articles dealing with nostalgia and immigrants that may help to explain the popularity of music about the South. Unsurprisingly, relocating from one's familiar environment is deeply disruptive, often to the point that people suffer depression and disassociation.

In an article written about Russian immigrants in San Francisco after the fall of the Soviet Union, Alexander Zinchenko notes, "Our sense of self-constancy is supported by the language we speak; cultural myths, values, and rituals shared with others; identification with certain social groups; and habitual lifestyle and everyday routines."10 While not all of the above is true for African-Americans migrating to the North in the 1920s, some of the concepts may be useful in explaining the popularity of blues music at that point in time.

In the words of Zinchenko, "The familiar transitional space of home ensures not only orientation in the world but also knowing oneself within the world and a sense of control over one's ego."11 Immigration removes the immigrant from a familiar space, creating dissonance between experience and memory;12 hence, the disruption in many people's lives contributed to feelings of alienation and numbness. Zinchenko concludes that one of the most effective ways to combat this feeling of isolation is spending time within an "immigrant enclave", where familiar customs and mores mitigate feelings of alienation.

For a long time, contemporary white musicologists and folklorists insisted on viewing blues music as a form of music that was pre-modern and "old timey."13 White audiences began to come around to country blues music by the end of the 1930s, after the genre had been surpassed by new forms of blues music. John Hammond, a record promoter and civil rights advocate in New York, hosted an influential concert series in 1938 and 1939 called "From Spirituals to Swing." Designed as a showcase of all forms of African-American music, from gospel to blues to jazz and hosted for a racially integrated audience, the concerts were groundbreaking for their time. Initially, Hammond wanted Robert Johnson, but after discovering that Johnson had died, Hammond decided Big Bill Broonzy would be the best fit. However, white audiences had their own notions of what an "authentic" bluesman would look like, and Hammond had Broonzy appear in the costume of a sharecropper -- despite the fact Broonzy had lived in Chicago for years and was, by the standards of the day, very successful.14

The white fascination with the "primitive" in music was sparked by prominent folklorists like Alan and John Lomax, who wanted to find musicians untainted by contact with popular culture. The Lomaxes were genuinely interested in preserving undocumented folk culture, and their work helped in part to spark an interest in "authentic" African-American culture that was untouched by popular culture. Blues music, along with country music, was a place for white Americans to criticize and escape from expressions of popular culture, contrasting the supposedly "authentic" blues music with commercial or corporate music. Yet this view was simplistic and ignored the complicated origins of this music, and we as listeners cannot understand the music if we don't understand the context in which it was created.

Even as blues music changed substantially, its nostalgic impulses never really disappeared. The popularity of "I Feel Like Going Home" by Muddy Waters and "Going Back Home" by Howlin' Wolf are records of a time when blues went electric; though the musical world changed substantially, the songs show that nostalgia in the blues hadn't really diminished at all.

University of Mississippi journalist Mark Dolan recently noted that one of the most common license plates he sees in Mississippi are those from Illinois, as people still drive down to see family members in the South. Even after the passage of ninety years, understanding the role and prevalence of nostalgia in blues music is important to understanding how it was created, why it was created and the history of African-Americans in the twentieth century.

Folklorists like to romanticize blues music as being a pure expression of culture, but recorded blues music was carefully marketed to its intended audience from its very beginning. As early as the 1920s, music aimed at African-Americans was labeled as "race music", and the best way to advertise it was in the pages of African-American newspapers. These newspapers had a wide circulation among urban African-Americans and even in parts of the South, where they were treated as contraband and discretely shared.
While living in Arkansas, the singer Big Bill Broonzy recalled furtively reading the most famous of these newspapers, The Chicago Defender, and he made the move to Chicago in part because of what he had learned in the newspaper. Broonzy said that Black readers of the Defender were seen as brave, as it was a newspaper that promoted Black migration to the North, criticized racism in the South, and pushed for social change.1These record advertisements were critical in selling records, as they often carried coupons that could be mailed back to the companies in exchange for the music. Mark Dolan, a professor of Journalism at the University of Mississippi, writes that, "These lavishly illustrated ads told of broken love affairs, loneliness, violence and jail, in concert with travel to and from the South-by train and boat, on foot and in memory-despite the Defender's editorial stance urging Black southerners to leave the region."2 It might seem strange, then, that the Defender had numerous record advertisements that nostalgized the South and referred to hard times in northern cities, a message at odds with the newspaper's founding principles.3
Recent arrivals in Chicago and elsewhere found life in the north to be alien and difficult. Audiences looking for familiar reassurances of home looked to blues music, at least in part, to mitigate the harshness of their new surroundings. These advertisements only lasted a short while before the Great Depression swept away most of the record companies, leaving only a few large companies as the survivors. Nevertheless, they offer some insight into blues music at a critical moment in its history as it adapted for a new sort of audience. Seen this way, blues music is not merely a pre-modern art form of rural people, but a highly adaptive art form that was responsive to the needs of its audience.

Songs of the South

Roughly 1.6 million African-Americans left the South and moved to cities in the North during the 1920s. Chicago was one of the most popular destinations, due to its economy and the city's reputation as an industrial city. As most of the migrants were from the rural South, they had little relevant work experience that applied to urban trades, and even those with work experience found themselves excluded from most jobs by discriminatory union practices, which left them with the lower-paying and more difficult jobs in stockyards and factories.4 New arrivals to the city tended to congregate in enclaves, such as the South Side of Chicago, partly due to discriminatory housing practices and partly due to their desire to live among other African-Americans.5 The living situations were difficult, especially for people who had perhaps never traveled outside of their home county before.
A music industry for African-Americans was created in that same year. Prior to 1920, record companies largely ignored African-American audiences, possibly out of the belief that they lacked money to spend on records -- but Mamie Smith's "Crazy Blues", which sold over a million copies, opened the door for blues artists. These initial recordings were done with large orchestras, bands, or a piano player, and the performers were, by and large, women. These women were performers in black theater and in cabarets, and their style worked with the very primitive recording techniques of the time, which could not capture softer sounds or stringed instruments easily.
However, the comparatively high wages that these women were paid also led record companies to look elsewhere for talent. The development of the electrical recording process in 1925 made it possible for guitar-driven blues to be recorded in a clearer and more easily-heard way,6 and musicians with guitars began to travel from small towns in the South and into the urban North. The first blues guitarist to hit it big was Blind Lemon Jefferson, a Texas-born musician who was "discovered" in Dallas and brought to Chicago to perform. While there were several guitarists who recorded before Blind Lemon Jefferson, he was the first to achieve star status, and Jefferson was immediately marketed as an authentic Southern musician.
Ads for these blues records were produced to appeal to black consumers, and in preparation, record companies kept black consultants on the payroll to reproduce urban slang for the ads.7 The companies neither understood what they were selling, nor did they care as long as it sold well; distinctions between styles of blues were largely irrelevant to the executives.8 Consultants and musicians were left to shape advertising of the music and the music itself, and talent scouts such as H.C. Speir were an important part of this process. As the major record companies were all headquartered in the North and were usually isolated from the talent -- Paramount Records was based in Grafton, Wisconsin for example -- they relied on scouts working in major cities or the South to find new musicians. As the decade wore on, the companies were recruiting from farther afield, often using record store owners to find local talent, which set off a race for who could find more "Southern-sounding" musicians.
These advertisements are replete with visual images and imaginings of the South and the harshness of the North. The ad for Ida Cox's "Chicago Bound Blues" is a good example, as it depicts a man leaving his girlfriend or wife to head to Chicago. This was a common plight for people living during the Great Migration as families were separated and relationships dissolved when people left. Songs were described in these ads in deliberately ambiguous ways, almost as though as the ending or story was being concealed. It was an effective hook, which spoke to familiar problems that the targeted audiences had experienced.
A number of blues songs give us insight into the nostalgic reasons that migrants looked back to the South, often using a number of loosely connected images that build to convey a singer's feelings rather than a firm narrative. Papi Charlie Jackson references the cold of the North in "I'm Going Where The Chilly Winds Don't Blow", where he sings of getting off the train in Jacksonville; Blind Blake's "Georgia Bound" begins with him mentioning he too wants to catch the southbound train and that he's "walked out my shoes over this ice and snow." Later, he says that, "The South is on my mind, my blues won't go away," and he concludes the song with images familiar to Southern listeners -- of "watermelon on the vine" and wanting to "get back to that Georgia gal of mine."
Blind Blake - Georgia Bound"
[audio:http://www.redefinemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/05/Blind-Blake_Georgia-Bound.mp3|titles=Blind Blake - Georgia Bound]
Blind Lemon Jefferson - "Chock House Blues"
[audio:http://www.redefinemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/05/Blind-Lemon-Jefferson_Chock-House-Blues.mp3|titles=Blind Lemon Jefferson - Chock House Blues]

Of any musician, however, Blind Lemon Jefferson perhaps best embodies the desire to evoke Southern nostalgia. His first appearance in an advertisement pitched his music as "real old-fashioned blues by a real old-fashioned blues singer" and emphasized the "Southern" style of his playing. Of course, as music historian David Evans notes, Jefferson's music was distinctive and innovative; Evans goes so far as to speculate that Jefferson's unusual harmonics in his songs was the result of him adapting jazz techniques to blues music.9 Nevertheless, if Jefferson's musical style was part of an ongoing and developing approach, his lyrical references to the South are commonplace, as in "Dry Southern Blues", which begins with him saying, "My mind leads me to take a trip down south." Even Jefferson's songs that don't explicitly deal with the South refer to his Texas heritage. "Chock House Blues" includes the lines "Baby, I can't drink whiskey, but I'm a fool ‘bout my homemade wine/ Ain't no sense in leavin' Dallas, they makes it there all the time."
This desire to project a Southern aura upon musicians may also have dictated the way that record labels named and labeled musicians. Mississippi John Hurt is probably the best example, in part because his name contributed to his eventual rediscovery. Okeh Records sold John Hurt as "Mississippi John Hurt," likely because saying that he was from Mississippi was a way to tout his credentials or authenticity as a bluesman. Musicians like the Mississippi Sheiks and Henry "Ragtime Texas" Thomas got the same treatment, and so did "The Mississippi Moaner", when somebody at the Vocalion label decided that the little-known musician Isaiah Nettles needed more spark. Geography, in this case, bestowed a certain musical pedigree.
Mississippi John Hurt - "Avalon Blues"
[audio:http://www.redefinemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/05/Mississippi-John-Hurt_Avalon-Blues.mp3|titles=Mississippi John Hurt - Avalon Blues]
The Mississippi Moaner - "It's Cold In China"
[audio:http://www.redefinemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/05/The-Mississippi-Moaner_Its-Cold-In-China-Blues.mp3|titles=The Mississippi Moaner - Its Cold In China]
Concurrently, much of the same phenomenon was happening with so-called white "Hillbilly" music, which we now recognize today as country music. As railroads and textile mills were being built in the South, industrialization led to an influx of poor whites seeking work in rapidly expanding cities in the Carolinas, such as Richmond, Durham, and Charlotte. Many of these people were coming from Appalachia, one of the poorest and least developed parts of the United States. The migration and subsequent settlement in urban areas created a new class of consumers who were familiar with traditional music and formed a record-buying class as well as a class of musicians. Though the marketing of white country music was similar to that of blues music, as it depicted familial displacement from a traditional way of life. In an advertisement for Fiddlin' Powers and Family, Victor notes that "Fiddlin' Powers and his family come from the mountains of Tennessee with some records of old-time American music-songs and dances." Likewise, Gid Tanner's music is advertised as "Old Familiar Tunes."

Lookin' For a Home

The senses are probably the most obvious gateway to nostalgia. Proust's Remembrance of Things Past is set in motion by the eating of a Madeleine. It's not surprising, then, that music can trigger those same feelings of nostalgia, especially when that music is anchored to a specific time and place now lost to the listener. Academic literature on nostalgia is surprisingly sparse, but there are some articles dealing with nostalgia and immigrants that may help to explain the popularity of music about the South. Unsurprisingly, relocating from one's familiar environment is deeply disruptive, often to the point that people suffer depression and disassociation.
In an article written about Russian immigrants in San Francisco after the fall of the Soviet Union, Alexander Zinchenko notes, "Our sense of self-constancy is supported by the language we speak; cultural myths, values, and rituals shared with others; identification with certain social groups; and habitual lifestyle and everyday routines."10 While not all of the above is true for African-Americans migrating to the North in the 1920s, some of the concepts may be useful in explaining the popularity of blues music at that point in time.
In the words of Zinchenko, "The familiar transitional space of home ensures not only orientation in the world but also knowing oneself within the world and a sense of control over one's ego."11 Immigration removes the immigrant from a familiar space, creating dissonance between experience and memory;12 hence, the disruption in many people's lives contributed to feelings of alienation and numbness. Zinchenko concludes that one of the most effective ways to combat this feeling of isolation is spending time within an "immigrant enclave", where familiar customs and mores mitigate feelings of alienation.
The Skillet Lickers - "Alabama Jubilee"
[audio:http://www.redefinemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/05/The-Skillet-Lickers_Alabama-Jubilee.mp3|titles=The Skillet Lickers - Alabama Jubilee]
For a long time, contemporary white musicologists and folklorists insisted on viewing blues music as a form of music that was pre-modern and "old timey."13 White audiences began to come around to country blues music by the end of the 1930s, after the genre had been surpassed by new forms of blues music. John Hammond, a record promoter and civil rights advocate in New York, hosted an influential concert series in 1938 and 1939 called "From Spirituals to Swing." Designed as a showcase of all forms of African-American music, from gospel to blues to jazz and hosted for a racially integrated audience, the concerts were groundbreaking for their time. Initially, Hammond wanted Robert Johnson, but after discovering that Johnson had died, Hammond decided Big Bill Broonzy would be the best fit. However, white audiences had their own notions of what an "authentic" bluesman would look like, and Hammond had Broonzy appear in the costume of a sharecropper -- despite the fact Broonzy had lived in Chicago for years and was, by the standards of the day, very successful.14
The white fascination with the "primitive" in music was sparked by prominent folklorists like Alan and John Lomax, who wanted to find musicians untainted by contact with popular culture. The Lomaxes were genuinely interested in preserving undocumented folk culture, and their work helped in part to spark an interest in "authentic" African-American culture that was untouched by popular culture. Blues music, along with country music, was a place for white Americans to criticize and escape from expressions of popular culture, contrasting the supposedly "authentic" blues music with commercial or corporate music. Yet this view was simplistic and ignored the complicated origins of this music, and we as listeners cannot understand the music if we don't understand the context in which it was created.
Even as blues music changed substantially, its nostalgic impulses never really disappeared. The popularity of "I Feel Like Going Home" by Muddy Waters and "Going Back Home" by Howlin' Wolf are records of a time when blues went electric; though the musical world changed substantially, the songs show that nostalgia in the blues hadn't really diminished at all.
University of Mississippi journalist Mark Dolan recently noted that one of the most common license plates he sees in Mississippi are those from Illinois, as people still drive down to see family members in the South. Even after the passage of ninety years, understanding the role and prevalence of nostalgia in blues music is important to understanding how it was created, why it was created and the history of African-Americans in the twentieth century.
Muddy Waters - "I Feel Like Going Home"
[audio:http://www.redefinemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/05/Muddy-Waters_I-Feel-Like-Going-Home.mp3|titles=Muddy Waters - I Feel Like Going Home]
Henry Thomas - "Arkansas"
[audio:http://www.redefinemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/05/Henry-Thomas_Arkansas.mp3|titles=Henry Thomas - Arkansas]

Regardless of your feelings about Palestine, A World Not Ours is a must watch for those interested in themes of landlessness, family, and what it means to be privileged. Through the narrative lens, we get a glimpse into life inside a semi-permanent Palestinian refugee camp in south Lebanon. It is, of course, neither possible to dissociate the film from the political implications of the setting, nor does the film attempt to do so. Yet the glimpses of life that we see offer insight into what it means to be marooned in another country with few rights, into what family and community mean in such a setting, and the pressures of this oppressive life.

This film was seen as a part of PIFF (Portland International Film Festival) 2014.

The camp is called Ain al-Hilweh. Early on, our narrator offers two possible translations from the Arabic: "the eye of the beautiful" or "sweet water spring". Neither does justice to the crumbling, ramshackle concrete apartment blocks—many hand-built by refugees—bundled together on winding, close-hemmed streets. Ain al-Hilweh is home to over 70,000 Palestinian refugees and has been in existence since 1948. Its residents aren't allowed to work in Lebanon, so jobs are few and money is scarce. Political unrest in general is high, violence not unusual, and tension exists with Lebanese security forces who not allowed inside the camp's walls.

As a result of the oppressive atmosphere and scarcity of money inside Ain al-Hilweh, the camp is largely controlled by Fatah, the largest faction of the militant political group Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO). Fatah provides young men with pocket money, and local Fatah captains with guns "mentor" younger members. In general, PLO factions clash regularly and violently with various governments seen to be antithetical to the movement to take back and reestablish a Palestinian government distinct from Israel. The Munich Olympics massacre in 1972 is the most infamous example. (Fatah is, however, is separate from and seen as somewhat less violent than Hamas, the Muslim Brotherhood affiliate organization that has governed the Gaza Strip since 2007.)

Despite this violent, stagnant atmosphere, Mahdi Fleifel, the story's narrator, presents a much rosier perspective on Ain al-Hilweh. His memories of the "sweet water spring" are fond. Some of them come to life in grainy 1980s camcorder quality video shot by his home-movie obsessed father. Fleifel carries on the tradition; he brings his camera everywhere, and films almost everything. We get glimpses of birthday parties where children are smiling and laughing, of family reunions, and, every four years, of wildly festive gatherings to celebrate and watch the World Cup.

Having escaped Ain al-Hilweh for a better life in Dubai, and then Denmark, Fleifel and his family may come and go from the camp as they please. Fleifel returns each summer to spend time with his uncle, grandfather, and childhood friends. We get footage from many of these visits, which is interspersed with camcorded memories of more innocent days past. Recalling his childhood visits, Fleifel at one point compares trips to Ain al-Hilweh to the excitement a typical kid might have for weeklong trip to Disneyland. As the years pass, however, Fleifel notices the unrest and the emotional toll that the rose-colored glass of youth, as well as his freedom to come and go from the camp, had caused him to overlook.

Fleifel is drawn increasingly to this darker side of life in Ain al-Hilweh. The frustrations and despair of never leaving the camp, Lebanon's work limitations, and the constant threat of violence become ever more apparent as Fleifel interviews relatives and friends. Fliefel's lens is ultimately drawn to his troubled childhood friend, Abu Eyad, who is no stranger to violence. Fleifel recounts the time a brawl broke out after tensions boiled over at one World Cup viewing party, and which ended in at least one death. Abu Eyad was involved, though it is unclear how. Later on, after much prompting, Abu Eyad tells of being captured and tortured by electrocution as a young man for his alleged support of Yasser Arafat, founder of Fatah and former chair of the PLO. No one wants to believe Abu Eyad's torture story. But guns are everywhere and violence common inside Ain al-Hilweh.

It soon becomes apparent that Abu Eyad can no longer take the oppressive weight of life inside the camp. Unable to leave, and unable to work for a living, he is (like many young men) in purgatory. His boredom and hatred of Lebanon, and of the politics in the region, begin to fester. Music and movies brought by Fliefel from abroad appease Abu Eyad's moods at first. But eventually Abu Eyad becomes fed up with life in Ain al-Hilweh. "I want to blow myself up," he confides, at one point, to Fleifel. He talks of wanting to die, simply to end a life with no prospect of betterment or change. Ostensibly in preparation, we watch Abu Eyad giving away his possessions, burning his school papers and books, and clearing out of his apartment to stay at one of the Fatah-sponsored residences.

Fleifel's uncle Said is also increasingly on-edge. Once a cool and fun-loving mentor to Fleifel, Said is frustrated with his life as a single man. He collects cans to sell by the kilo, and cannot save up enough money to marry, despite pressure from his family to do so. Said dwells on the death of his older brother when they were teenagers (in a gun battle against Lebanese soldiers attempting to invade the camp) and tends to the pigeons he keeps on his rooftop. We learn that he once was cheated out of an opportunity to flee Lebanon by a family member, an event that darkly hovers over the fun-guy persona he portrays outwardly in the camp.

Interspersed throughout the film are little snippets of daily life. We see that inside Ain al-Hilweh, the refugees enjoy some of the privileges we all do. They drink soda and juice. Many families have a television, with daytime shows just as bad as Days of Our Lives and American Idol. Coffee and cigarettes are a daily routine. Growing up, Fleifel would watch American action movies with his uncle Said. A BMW SUV drives by in one shot. One friend of the family has a wedding, and wears a beautiful white dress, and there is dancing and a tearful celebration before the bride leaves. Clothespins hang on clotheslines in courtyards or on top of buildings.

The details of Ain al-Hilweh contrast greatly with the few images we get of a seemingly idyllic Denmark, where Fleifel spent his young adult years. While green and furtile, most days there were rainy and cold. Instead of people congregating and living their life in the narrow streets of Ain al-Hilweh, there are open but empty pastures, urban homes that sprawl, and long drives to find halal meat and other treats from home. Fleifel tells us he was embarrassed of his family while growing up in Denmark. Trying to fit in there, his father's ways in particular were a reminder to him that he was out of place.

Fleifel is careful to include both the dark and light sides of life in Ain al-Hilweh. At times, it feels like too much footage is included – but it is diverse for a reason. The universality of these feelings, items, and activities heightens the viewer's appreciation of both the anger and deep weariness that landlessness foments. Above all, the futility of clinging to a piece of land that is no longer one's home comes through. Home is, after all, wherever one is, or where one continues to return. For many Palestinians, that has become Ain al-Hilweh.

Regardless of your feelings about Palestine, A World Not Ours is a must watch for those interested in themes of landlessness, family, and what it means to be privileged. Through the narrative lens, we get a glimpse into life inside a semi-permanent Palestinian refugee camp in south Lebanon. It is, of course, neither possible to dissociate the film from the political implications of the setting, nor does the film attempt to do so. Yet the glimpses of life that we see offer insight into what it means to be marooned in another country with few rights, into what family and community mean in such a setting, and the pressures of this oppressive life.

This film was seen as a part of PIFF (Portland International Film Festival) 2014.

The camp is called Ain al-Hilweh. Early on, our narrator offers two possible translations from the Arabic: "the eye of the beautiful" or "sweet water spring". Neither does justice to the crumbling, ramshackle concrete apartment blocks—many hand-built by refugees—bundled together on winding, close-hemmed streets. Ain al-Hilweh is home to over 70,000 Palestinian refugees and has been in existence since 1948. Its residents aren't allowed to work in Lebanon, so jobs are few and money is scarce. Political unrest in general is high, violence not unusual, and tension exists with Lebanese security forces who not allowed inside the camp's walls.

As a result of the oppressive atmosphere and scarcity of money inside Ain al-Hilweh, the camp is largely controlled by Fatah, the largest faction of the militant political group Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO). Fatah provides young men with pocket money, and local Fatah captains with guns "mentor" younger members. In general, PLO factions clash regularly and violently with various governments seen to be antithetical to the movement to take back and reestablish a Palestinian government distinct from Israel. The Munich Olympics massacre in 1972 is the most infamous example. (Fatah is, however, is separate from and seen as somewhat less violent than Hamas, the Muslim Brotherhood affiliate organization that has governed the Gaza Strip since 2007.)
Despite this violent, stagnant atmosphere, Mahdi Fleifel, the story's narrator, presents a much rosier perspective on Ain al-Hilweh. His memories of the "sweet water spring" are fond. Some of them come to life in grainy 1980s camcorder quality video shot by his home-movie obsessed father. Fleifel carries on the tradition; he brings his camera everywhere, and films almost everything. We get glimpses of birthday parties where children are smiling and laughing, of family reunions, and, every four years, of wildly festive gatherings to celebrate and watch the World Cup.
Having escaped Ain al-Hilweh for a better life in Dubai, and then Denmark, Fleifel and his family may come and go from the camp as they please. Fleifel returns each summer to spend time with his uncle, grandfather, and childhood friends. We get footage from many of these visits, which is interspersed with camcorded memories of more innocent days past. Recalling his childhood visits, Fleifel at one point compares trips to Ain al-Hilweh to the excitement a typical kid might have for weeklong trip to Disneyland. As the years pass, however, Fleifel notices the unrest and the emotional toll that the rose-colored glass of youth, as well as his freedom to come and go from the camp, had caused him to overlook.
Fleifel is drawn increasingly to this darker side of life in Ain al-Hilweh. The frustrations and despair of never leaving the camp, Lebanon's work limitations, and the constant threat of violence become ever more apparent as Fleifel interviews relatives and friends. Fliefel's lens is ultimately drawn to his troubled childhood friend, Abu Eyad, who is no stranger to violence. Fleifel recounts the time a brawl broke out after tensions boiled over at one World Cup viewing party, and which ended in at least one death. Abu Eyad was involved, though it is unclear how. Later on, after much prompting, Abu Eyad tells of being captured and tortured by electrocution as a young man for his alleged support of Yasser Arafat, founder of Fatah and former chair of the PLO. No one wants to believe Abu Eyad's torture story. But guns are everywhere and violence common inside Ain al-Hilweh.
It soon becomes apparent that Abu Eyad can no longer take the oppressive weight of life inside the camp. Unable to leave, and unable to work for a living, he is (like many young men) in purgatory. His boredom and hatred of Lebanon, and of the politics in the region, begin to fester. Music and movies brought by Fliefel from abroad appease Abu Eyad's moods at first. But eventually Abu Eyad becomes fed up with life in Ain al-Hilweh. "I want to blow myself up," he confides, at one point, to Fleifel. He talks of wanting to die, simply to end a life with no prospect of betterment or change. Ostensibly in preparation, we watch Abu Eyad giving away his possessions, burning his school papers and books, and clearing out of his apartment to stay at one of the Fatah-sponsored residences.
Fleifel's uncle Said is also increasingly on-edge. Once a cool and fun-loving mentor to Fleifel, Said is frustrated with his life as a single man. He collects cans to sell by the kilo, and cannot save up enough money to marry, despite pressure from his family to do so. Said dwells on the death of his older brother when they were teenagers (in a gun battle against Lebanese soldiers attempting to invade the camp) and tends to the pigeons he keeps on his rooftop. We learn that he once was cheated out of an opportunity to flee Lebanon by a family member, an event that darkly hovers over the fun-guy persona he portrays outwardly in the camp.
Interspersed throughout the film are little snippets of daily life. We see that inside Ain al-Hilweh, the refugees enjoy some of the privileges we all do. They drink soda and juice. Many families have a television, with daytime shows just as bad as Days of Our Lives and American Idol. Coffee and cigarettes are a daily routine. Growing up, Fleifel would watch American action movies with his uncle Said. A BMW SUV drives by in one shot. One friend of the family has a wedding, and wears a beautiful white dress, and there is dancing and a tearful celebration before the bride leaves. Clothespins hang on clotheslines in courtyards or on top of buildings.
The details of Ain al-Hilweh contrast greatly with the few images we get of a seemingly idyllic Denmark, where Fleifel spent his young adult years. While green and furtile, most days there were rainy and cold. Instead of people congregating and living their life in the narrow streets of Ain al-Hilweh, there are open but empty pastures, urban homes that sprawl, and long drives to find halal meat and other treats from home. Fleifel tells us he was embarrassed of his family while growing up in Denmark. Trying to fit in there, his father's ways in particular were a reminder to him that he was out of place.
Fleifel is careful to include both the dark and light sides of life in Ain al-Hilweh. At times, it feels like too much footage is included – but it is diverse for a reason. The universality of these feelings, items, and activities heightens the viewer's appreciation of both the anger and deep weariness that landlessness foments. Above all, the futility of clinging to a piece of land that is no longer one's home comes through. Home is, after all, wherever one is, or where one continues to return. For many Palestinians, that has become Ain al-Hilweh.
Ω

On January 9, 2014, we lost one of the most eloquent voices of the freedom fight, Imamu Amiri Baraka, the man formerly known as Everett LeRoi Jones. Amiri Baraka was one of the most published and respected artists of the Black Arts Movement, and his work had an extreme polarizing effect. He was made the Poet Laureate of New Jersey, only to have that title stripped away because of his poem "Somebody Blew Up America", was a controversial statement about 9/11. He was a lifelong advocate for equality, but has been accused of anti-semitism, misogyny, and racism. He was a contradiction.
Amiri Baraka was an artist at the crossroads: between pre-war and baby boom; between black and white; between free-jazz and hip-hop. He stood between hippies, beatniks and black power; sci-fi and harsh realism. He occupied the intersection between humor and ugly truths. As we continue to lose more and more of the older generation of freedom fighters, we run the risk of forgetting – forgetting the struggle, and the oppression they were struggling against. As we get further and further away from slavery (the Southern kind, anyway), we are in danger of forgetting its face and losing sight of its specter, even if it's only in our minds.

The 20th Century was unique for being the first full century with recording technology. While we may not get the scent of tear gas on the breeze, or know the humidity of an August afternoon in Birmingham, we can strive to remember and understand through records, photographs and film.

Going through the recorded legacy of Amiri Baraka, from the '50s through the '90s, is like opening a time capsule. It reminds us of the revolutionary power of jazz, poetry and theater. In 2014, all of those forms have almost entirely been de-toothed and un-fanged, become a tool of the bourgeoisie that they panned, bombed and smashed. It's easy to forget that these were the voice of the people. It calls us back to a time of street theater and community workshops: these were a time of action. Without this reality, it is all too easy (and dangerous) to co-opt the art of revolutionaries past, to bolster your own cred, while safe and comfortable in your air conditioned citadel.

The Black Arts Movement

The Black Arts Movement, also known as BAM or the Black Aesthetics Movement, was the artistic branch of the Black Power movement, first started in Harlem by Everett LeRoi Jones, or Amiri Baraka. TIME Magazine has described the movement as the "single most controversial moment in the history of African-American literature – possibly in American literature as a whole."

The formal beginning of the Black Arts Movement was found in Jones's establishment of BARTS, the Black Arts Repertory Theatre/School. Participants in the movement subscribed to both militant and non-militant philosophies, and their work brought diverse and multicultural voices to the previously white-dominated literary scene, as well as inspired African-Americans to own publishing houses, magazines, journals, and arts institutions. It also led to the creation of African-American Studies programs in universities, which later had similar repercussions for other ethnic groups in the years to come.

These songs and poems and jams remind us to get involved, to know your neighbor, to care, about yourself and others. It teaches us to think and listen beyond genre, race and era, and remember we are all in this together; our survival depends on it. Perhaps, with his passing, we can regain an appreciation towards these 20th century forms, remember why they were revolutionary, what was great. Another benefit of recordings is they allow us to view objectively, without the grime of nostalgia, which is every bit as dangerous as apathy, if not more. With the passing of Amiri Baraka, it offers us an opportunity to look back and remember, and to wonder where we're going. What works? What's better? What's worse?

Without recording technology, we might forget that Imamu Amiri Baraka, the man formerly known as LeRoi Jones, was full of Holy Spirit. When reciting his poetry, he was equal parts Martin Luther King Jr. and Chuck D. While Amiri Baraka was highly intelligent and educated, he spoke with a voice by and for the people. He stood at the crossroads between Academia and regular folks, between folk and the avant-garde. His work, his voice, his life, can help us to understand each other, and where we all came from, just a little bit better. In the poem "Leroy", from 1969, Baraka wrote:

"When I die, the consciousness I carry will to black people. May they take the useful parts, the sweet meats of my feeling, and leave the rotten white parts alone."

What Amiri Baraka could not have predicted, when writing those lines, is that we are all inheriting his consciousness. We all carry his spark; we are all living in the world he fought and dreamed for.

Below are 10 recordings, from different phases of Amiri Baraka's career, to help us remember and reflect.

To the family and friends of Imamu Amiri Baraka, you have our deepest sympathies. He was a great man, and will be deeply missed. He said a lot of things, boiled a lot of blood and ruffled a lot of feathers, but we are still listening, still thinking, still struggling.

1. "Black Dada Nihilismus"
This track was what got me into Amiri Baraka, by way of a DJ Spooky remix on the A Red Hot Sound Trip compilation, from 1996. It's a surreal and sinister, stream-of-consciousness fever dream of African-American stereotypes, recorded with the New York Art Quintet. His incantations are neither polite nor restrained, galaxies beyond the safe formula of today's "slam poetry". This was recorded in 1967, right in the thick of things, and reminds us that there are REAL injustices to be railed against, and silence is the same as compliance.

"May a lost god damballah, rest or save us/ Against the murders we intend/ Against his lost white children/ Black dada nihilismus."

2. Black Dada Nihilismus (DJ Spooky Remix)
We'll include a couple of remixes, to illustrate the ways that Amiri Baraka have infiltrated hip-hop and remix culture.

Like the poet/MC Saul Williams said in his eulogy for Baraka in The Fader: "In our glorification of original gangstas and rebels how could we ever forget to glorify one of the most original voices of Black anger?

3. "Against Bourgeois Art" (featuring Air, 1982)
"Is there somebody here to record this?" Thankfully yes. This loose and scattered free jazz number with the band Air manages to be both a firebrand and super chill at the same time. It's a perfect illustration of how Baraka can at once be both the voice of righteous indignation and completely hilarious. "Against Bourgeois Art" is a scathing, spot on criticism of "avant-garde" artists, assimilated into the system.

"They fight knowledge with abstraction and think they cool cuz they talk to themselves. They is full of shit, like vultures pecking on an open grave. They uphold capitalism, and give themselves airs. They think their shit is profound and complex, but the people think it's profound and complex as monkey farts. Now, meditate on that."

4. "Who Will Survive America?" The recent trend of reissues and archiving has done wonders for preserving the past, raising people's interests through careful curation and superb packaging. This soul jam was included on the Black Power compilation Listen, Whitey, re-released on the impeccable Light In The Attic Records
.
"Who will survive America? Very few negroes. No crackers at all."

5. "Bang Bang Outishly"
Baraka was known for his passionate writings on the subject of jazz, after working in a record warehouse in the East Village. "Bang Bang Outishly" is a poem he wrote on the subject of one Thelonious Sphere Monk.

Jazz was truly an American music, classical music constructed on the spot, in the heat of the moment. It was invented by, and most popular, among African-American musicians, and incorporated a lot of African elements, like call-and-response and unusual meter.

Baraka addressed this issue in the essay "Jazz And The White Critic", in which he said: "Failure to concentrate on the blues and jazz attitude rather than his conditioned appreciation of the music. The major flaw in this approach to Negro music is that it strips the music too ingenuously of its social and cultural intent. It seeks to define jazz as an art (or a folk art) that has come out of no intelligent body of socio-cultural philosophy."

Let's take this opportunity to re-appraise this artform, to remember how far out and revolutionary it was, and try and appreciate it on it's own terms, and hear what they're trying to say.

...and here's a remix, turning Baraka's incantations into a sound poetry of their own, turning his words back into jazz...

6. "AM/TRACK" (Featuring Air)
Here's another poem inspired by jazz, this one for the late, great John Coltrane.

Baraka described Coltrane in terms of modern painting, saying it reminded him of Mondrian's geometrical decisions, calling it a "metal poem". It remains some of the finest and most poetic writing on music you will ever read.

"Not only does one seem to hear each note and sub-tone of a chord being played, but also each one of those notes shattered into half and quarter tones…"

It is like a painter who, instead of painting a simple white, paints all the elemental pigments that the white contains, at the same time as the white itself.

This is a long, weird one, but well worth a listen. It details a critical position between free jazz, Black Power and science fiction, which laid the roots for a movement known as Afrofuturism.

Sun Ra, born Herman Blount, was an incredibly out there jazz musician, who claimed to be from Saturn and made hundreds and hundreds of records with his band, The Arkestra. He was an early adopter of electronic instruments, utilizing their ability to evoke images of outerspace. Sun Ra, like Amiri Baraka, was dreaming of a new world and better tomorrow for African-Americans.

on Sun Ra: Baraka: Well, Sun Ra was making a kind of free jazz. He was not just adhering to the kind of Tin Pan Alley legacy that most of the music has, and even the Be-boppers who were just using the harmonies rather than those same kind of melodies were still kind of linked to those kind of chord structures. What Ra said, and indeed all those musicians that came out during that time: Ornette Coleman, Albert Ayler, Pharoah Saunders, all those musicians, beginning with the late Coltrane, began to emphasize going beyond the kind of Tin Pan Alley structures, and it just seemed like Sun Ra was just doing it in earnest. He was trying to go as far as he could. But the music has very clear African, Asian, Latin kind of bases to what it is, although he'll go off and play some sounds perhaps you've never heard or never heard associated with jazz, although if you have listened to most modern world music, you'll certainly hear that, if you listen to Weber, Stravinsky, or somebody like that, or Bartok. What Ra was doing was trying to make a kind of cosmopolitan music past just the regular kind of night club be-bop.

Paulson: I'm curious, how has Sun Ra's poetry and music influenced your own creative work, if it has?

Baraka: Well, Sun Ra certainly came in in a period where I think our generation was thinking similar kind of thoughts, whether it was Albert Ayler, or later Trane, or Ornette Coleman. We had similar kinds of ideas. First of all, transcending American society. And I thought there is a commonality in that, even the science fiction aspect of it was related to the fact that we wanted the society to change, and we were willing even to posit alternate models. I mean, Sun Ra speaks inconstantly of alterworlds, alterlife. Things that are not this way, parallel but different, you know.

Paulson: And I suppose where the whole science fiction legacy comes in, as well. Why someone who identifies with that science fiction tradition is a radical. I mean, you're imagining newer and possibly better worlds.
- from the introduction to This Planet Is Doomed: The Science Fiction Poetry of Sun Ra (Kicks Books)

8. "For Amiri Baraka" (by Toki Wright) Let's take a small break, and listen to the modern influence of Amiri Baraka, from MC Toki Wright.

"Will our children even be able to recognize the bones of their own timeline? Will the child's eyes be blinded by screens, ears deafened to the screams, their feet weighed down by the newest pair of J's on a race to the end? We have a responsibility to carry the fire, be it in our stomachs or on the end of torches. If you fear the person who cuts your check, you will never walk upright, cuz sharecropping is not an option. Don't let these ships dock on your thoughts and colonize on your mind. Don't let hip-hop get so lost it forgets the burning South Bronx, the massacre at Attica, the tumult of Jamaica, the back split open in the fields of Georgia, and the vast landscapes of Nubia.

9. "Someone Blew Up America"
We draw close to the end, with the poem that lost Amiri Baraka his Poet Laureate status. It was too soon, about a touchy subject. He was accused of anti-semitism, downright barbarism. He spoke the truth that he saw fit, the truth no one else would speak. He spoke hard truths, using poetry like a Molotov cocktails to light people up when they were flammable. You might not agree with what he's saying, but you have to admire the grit.

10. "Rhythm Traveller"
Last but not least: a short story, about a man who can travel records, materializing wherever that song is played. We like to think it's true, and Amiri Baraka's spirit will appear where these songs may appear, to embolden us, to make us strong in our convictions. To make us try. To make us care.

"You can disappear, and re-appear, wherever that music is played. So if you become "black, brown and beige", you can re-appear anytime and anywhere that plays. Like, I go into 'Take This Hammer', I can appear wherever that is, was, or will be sung. I turned into some Sun Ra, and hung around inside Gravity. You probably heard of the scatting comet? Hey brother, ain't no danger. Just don't pick a corny tune."

On January 9, 2014, we lost one of the most eloquent voices of the freedom fight, Imamu Amiri Baraka, the man formerly known as Everett LeRoi Jones. Amiri Baraka was one of the most published and respected artists of the Black Arts Movement, and his work had an extreme polarizing effect. He was made the Poet Laureate of New Jersey, only to have that title stripped away because of his poem "Somebody Blew Up America", was a controversial statement about 9/11. He was a lifelong advocate for equality, but has been accused of anti-semitism, misogyny, and racism. He was a contradiction.
Amiri Baraka was an artist at the crossroads: between pre-war and baby boom; between black and white; between free-jazz and hip-hop. He stood between hippies, beatniks and black power; sci-fi and harsh realism. He occupied the intersection between humor and ugly truths. As we continue to lose more and more of the older generation of freedom fighters, we run the risk of forgetting – forgetting the struggle, and the oppression they were struggling against. As we get further and further away from slavery (the Southern kind, anyway), we are in danger of forgetting its face and losing sight of its specter, even if it's only in our minds.
The 20th Century was unique for being the first full century with recording technology. While we may not get the scent of tear gas on the breeze, or know the humidity of an August afternoon in Birmingham, we can strive to remember and understand through records, photographs and film.
Going through the recorded legacy of Amiri Baraka, from the '50s through the '90s, is like opening a time capsule. It reminds us of the revolutionary power of jazz, poetry and theater. In 2014, all of those forms have almost entirely been de-toothed and un-fanged, become a tool of the bourgeoisie that they panned, bombed and smashed. It's easy to forget that these were the voice of the people. It calls us back to a time of street theater and community workshops: these were a time of action. Without this reality, it is all too easy (and dangerous) to co-opt the art of revolutionaries past, to bolster your own cred, while safe and comfortable in your air conditioned citadel.

The Black Arts Movement

The Black Arts Movement, also known as BAM or the Black Aesthetics Movement, was the artistic branch of the Black Power movement, first started in Harlem by Everett LeRoi Jones, or Amiri Baraka. TIME Magazine has described the movement as the "single most controversial moment in the history of African-American literature – possibly in American literature as a whole."
The formal beginning of the Black Arts Movement was found in Jones's establishment of BARTS, the Black Arts Repertory Theatre/School. Participants in the movement subscribed to both militant and non-militant philosophies, and their work brought diverse and multicultural voices to the previously white-dominated literary scene, as well as inspired African-Americans to own publishing houses, magazines, journals, and arts institutions. It also led to the creation of African-American Studies programs in universities, which later had similar repercussions for other ethnic groups in the years to come.

These songs and poems and jams remind us to get involved, to know your neighbor, to care, about yourself and others. It teaches us to think and listen beyond genre, race and era, and remember we are all in this together; our survival depends on it. Perhaps, with his passing, we can regain an appreciation towards these 20th century forms, remember why they were revolutionary, what was great. Another benefit of recordings is they allow us to view objectively, without the grime of nostalgia, which is every bit as dangerous as apathy, if not more. With the passing of Amiri Baraka, it offers us an opportunity to look back and remember, and to wonder where we're going. What works? What's better? What's worse?
Without recording technology, we might forget that Imamu Amiri Baraka, the man formerly known as LeRoi Jones, was full of Holy Spirit. When reciting his poetry, he was equal parts Martin Luther King Jr. and Chuck D. While Amiri Baraka was highly intelligent and educated, he spoke with a voice by and for the people. He stood at the crossroads between Academia and regular folks, between folk and the avant-garde. His work, his voice, his life, can help us to understand each other, and where we all came from, just a little bit better. In the poem "Leroy", from 1969, Baraka wrote:

"When I die, the consciousness I carry will to black people. May they take the useful parts, the sweet meats of my feeling, and leave the rotten white parts alone."

What Amiri Baraka could not have predicted, when writing those lines, is that we are all inheriting his consciousness. We all carry his spark; we are all living in the world he fought and dreamed for.
Below are 10 recordings, from different phases of Amiri Baraka's career, to help us remember and reflect.
To the family and friends of Imamu Amiri Baraka, you have our deepest sympathies. He was a great man, and will be deeply missed. He said a lot of things, boiled a lot of blood and ruffled a lot of feathers, but we are still listening, still thinking, still struggling.

1. "Black Dada Nihilismus"
This track was what got me into Amiri Baraka, by way of a DJ Spooky remix on the A Red Hot Sound Trip compilation, from 1996. It's a surreal and sinister, stream-of-consciousness fever dream of African-American stereotypes, recorded with the New York Art Quintet. His incantations are neither polite nor restrained, galaxies beyond the safe formula of today's "slam poetry". This was recorded in 1967, right in the thick of things, and reminds us that there are REAL injustices to be railed against, and silence is the same as compliance.
"May a lost god damballah, rest or save us/ Against the murders we intend/ Against his lost white children/ Black dada nihilismus."

2. Black Dada Nihilismus (DJ Spooky Remix)
We'll include a couple of remixes, to illustrate the ways that Amiri Baraka have infiltrated hip-hop and remix culture.
Like the poet/MC Saul Williams said in his eulogy for Baraka in The Fader: "In our glorification of original gangstas and rebels how could we ever forget to glorify one of the most original voices of Black anger?

3. "Against Bourgeois Art" (featuring Air, 1982)
"Is there somebody here to record this?" Thankfully yes. This loose and scattered free jazz number with the band Air manages to be both a firebrand and super chill at the same time. It's a perfect illustration of how Baraka can at once be both the voice of righteous indignation and completely hilarious. "Against Bourgeois Art" is a scathing, spot on criticism of "avant-garde" artists, assimilated into the system.
"They fight knowledge with abstraction and think they cool cuz they talk to themselves. They is full of shit, like vultures pecking on an open grave. They uphold capitalism, and give themselves airs. They think their shit is profound and complex, but the people think it's profound and complex as monkey farts. Now, meditate on that."
Against Bourgeois Art by Amiri Baraka on Grooveshark

4. "Who Will Survive America?" The recent trend of reissues and archiving has done wonders for preserving the past, raising people's interests through careful curation and superb packaging. This soul jam was included on the Black Power compilation Listen, Whitey, re-released on the impeccable Light In The Attic Records
.
"Who will survive America? Very few negroes. No crackers at all."

5. "Bang Bang Outishly"
Baraka was known for his passionate writings on the subject of jazz, after working in a record warehouse in the East Village. "Bang Bang Outishly" is a poem he wrote on the subject of one Thelonious Sphere Monk.
Jazz was truly an American music, classical music constructed on the spot, in the heat of the moment. It was invented by, and most popular, among African-American musicians, and incorporated a lot of African elements, like call-and-response and unusual meter.
Baraka addressed this issue in the essay "Jazz And The White Critic", in which he said: "Failure to concentrate on the blues and jazz attitude rather than his conditioned appreciation of the music. The major flaw in this approach to Negro music is that it strips the music too ingenuously of its social and cultural intent. It seeks to define jazz as an art (or a folk art) that has come out of no intelligent body of socio-cultural philosophy."
Let's take this opportunity to re-appraise this artform, to remember how far out and revolutionary it was, and try and appreciate it on it's own terms, and hear what they're trying to say.
...and here's a remix, turning Baraka's incantations into a sound poetry of their own, turning his words back into jazz...

6. "AM/TRACK" (Featuring Air)
Here's another poem inspired by jazz, this one for the late, great John Coltrane.
Baraka described Coltrane in terms of modern painting, saying it reminded him of Mondrian's geometrical decisions, calling it a "metal poem". It remains some of the finest and most poetic writing on music you will ever read.
"Not only does one seem to hear each note and sub-tone of a chord being played, but also each one of those notes shattered into half and quarter tones…"
It is like a painter who, instead of painting a simple white, paints all the elemental pigments that the white contains, at the same time as the white itself.

7. "A Black Mass" (Featuring Sun Ra and the Myth Science Arkestra) http://www.pandora.com/amiri-baraka-with-sun-ra-myth-science-arkestraThis is a long, weird one, but well worth a listen. It details a critical position between free jazz, Black Power and science fiction, which laid the roots for a movement known as Afrofuturism.
Sun Ra, born Herman Blount, was an incredibly out there jazz musician, who claimed to be from Saturn and made hundreds and hundreds of records with his band, The Arkestra. He was an early adopter of electronic instruments, utilizing their ability to evoke images of outerspace. Sun Ra, like Amiri Baraka, was dreaming of a new world and better tomorrow for African-Americans.

on Sun Ra: Baraka: Well, Sun Ra was making a kind of free jazz. He was not just adhering to the kind of Tin Pan Alley legacy that most of the music has, and even the Be-boppers who were just using the harmonies rather than those same kind of melodies were still kind of linked to those kind of chord structures. What Ra said, and indeed all those musicians that came out during that time: Ornette Coleman, Albert Ayler, Pharoah Saunders, all those musicians, beginning with the late Coltrane, began to emphasize going beyond the kind of Tin Pan Alley structures, and it just seemed like Sun Ra was just doing it in earnest. He was trying to go as far as he could. But the music has very clear African, Asian, Latin kind of bases to what it is, although he'll go off and play some sounds perhaps you've never heard or never heard associated with jazz, although if you have listened to most modern world music, you'll certainly hear that, if you listen to Weber, Stravinsky, or somebody like that, or Bartok. What Ra was doing was trying to make a kind of cosmopolitan music past just the regular kind of night club be-bop.
Paulson: I'm curious, how has Sun Ra's poetry and music influenced your own creative work, if it has?
Baraka: Well, Sun Ra certainly came in in a period where I think our generation was thinking similar kind of thoughts, whether it was Albert Ayler, or later Trane, or Ornette Coleman. We had similar kinds of ideas. First of all, transcending American society. And I thought there is a commonality in that, even the science fiction aspect of it was related to the fact that we wanted the society to change, and we were willing even to posit alternate models. I mean, Sun Ra speaks inconstantly of alterworlds, alterlife. Things that are not this way, parallel but different, you know.
Paulson: And I suppose where the whole science fiction legacy comes in, as well. Why someone who identifies with that science fiction tradition is a radical. I mean, you're imagining newer and possibly better worlds.
- from the introduction to This Planet Is Doomed: The Science Fiction Poetry of Sun Ra (Kicks Books)

8. "For Amiri Baraka" (by Toki Wright) Let's take a small break, and listen to the modern influence of Amiri Baraka, from MC Toki Wright.

"Will our children even be able to recognize the bones of their own timeline? Will the child's eyes be blinded by screens, ears deafened to the screams, their feet weighed down by the newest pair of J's on a race to the end? We have a responsibility to carry the fire, be it in our stomachs or on the end of torches. If you fear the person who cuts your check, you will never walk upright, cuz sharecropping is not an option. Don't let these ships dock on your thoughts and colonize on your mind. Don't let hip-hop get so lost it forgets the burning South Bronx, the massacre at Attica, the tumult of Jamaica, the back split open in the fields of Georgia, and the vast landscapes of Nubia.

9. "Someone Blew Up America"
We draw close to the end, with the poem that lost Amiri Baraka his Poet Laureate status. It was too soon, about a touchy subject. He was accused of anti-semitism, downright barbarism. He spoke the truth that he saw fit, the truth no one else would speak. He spoke hard truths, using poetry like a Molotov cocktails to light people up when they were flammable. You might not agree with what he's saying, but you have to admire the grit.

10. "Rhythm Traveller"
Last but not least: a short story, about a man who can travel records, materializing wherever that song is played. We like to think it's true, and Amiri Baraka's spirit will appear where these songs may appear, to embolden us, to make us strong in our convictions. To make us try. To make us care.

"You can disappear, and re-appear, wherever that music is played. So if you become "black, brown and beige", you can re-appear anytime and anywhere that plays. Like, I go into 'Take This Hammer', I can appear wherever that is, was, or will be sung. I turned into some Sun Ra, and hung around inside Gravity. You probably heard of the scatting comet? Hey brother, ain't no danger. Just don't pick a corny tune."

China: a land of nearly 1.5 billion people, 56 recognized ethnic groups, and 292 living languages, spanning over 5,000 kilometers and 34 land divisions. Massive in size, notable in history, and influential in its economic and political maneuvers, China is simultaneously exciting and terrifying – something of a contradiction to the outside world, much loved and much feared.

Yet hidden beneath the gargantuan, State-driven China that is emphasized over-and-over again in news coverage lies an artistic day-to-day that few people see. As in any developing country, China has become a breeding ground for new and often innovative ideas – and included in that are an increasing number of musicians searching for their own identities. Many of them are following and documenting their own creative impulses, thereby bringing some musical change to a society otherwise dominated by mainstream Asian pop.

"The world's image of China is that of a faceless factory worker, the tasteless new rich Chinese buying property everywhere, the 1.5 billion black dots in the horizon sucking up resources. It doesn't realize that there are also 1.5 billion potential creative minds in this country as well. I think it will take time to make that true." – Helen Feng of Nova Heart

From The Outside Looking In
外界的眼光

On the international stage, mainland China's music scene is still a novelty. It lacks the long-established cred of its neighboring Japan or the global buzz of Korea; and though prominent, even its folk music receives far less attention than that of more Western-influenced countries in South America, Africa, and Southeast Asia.

Nonetheless, in recent years, certain Chinese artists have been fortunate enough to tour internationally, as well as receive write-ups from global music blogs. Due to the lack of other exposure, these cherry-picked artists have more or less come to represent China's underground music scene to international audiences. Some in the Chinese music scene consider these representations limited and short-sighted.

"There are a handful of bands who are disproportionately covered in Western media... where the angle is not, ‘Look at this musically interesting new band,' but, ‘Look, there's punk [and] indie rock coming from China, how strange...'" explains Josh Feola, a booker behind monthly noise nights in Beijing and co-founder of the blog site Pangbianr. "We call that ‘China cred,' and it's a bogus but expected journalistic copout. Maybe you could say a minority of bands are getting attention, but not necessarily the kind of attention they deserve, and the rest get pretty much nothing."

Helen Feng (冯海宁), of the musical project Nova Heart (新星心), is one artist who has been lucky enough to be embraced by Western media. She has toured North America and been featured on La Blogoteque, an internationally-reknowned documentary video series. Fluent in English and Mandarin, Feng was born in Beijing and currently lives there – but because she spent much of her childhood in the United States and Canada, she has a particularly unique viewpoint of the Chinese music scene.

"There are a lot more opportunities to go overseas now, but I think just being a Chinese musician doesn't really help anymore," Feng explains. "China does get a fair bit of attention. However, the old curiosity about China has been replaced by negative stereotypes, and even though you have more chances to go abroad, people always try and pin you as a copy of ‘blah blah blah' because they refuse to believe that [your music] could be original. The only time they think, ‘Oh that may be original,' is if you're playing some Chinese traditional instrument or... taking very directly from Chinese music..."

She cites a scenario where a Western music critic called Nova Heart a copy of Happy Mondays, ignoring the roots of Happy Mondays themselves, who were influenced by disco and dance music that had been going on for decades. "It was so wrong it was laughable," says Feng, "but that's the way they had to see it. It's the way the world wants to see it: ‘No, it's from China; [it] has to be a copy of blah blah blah.'

Perhaps one reason for the world's proclivity towards writing China's music scene off as derivative is the very real fact that it was, in its early stages of development, highly shaped by foreigners living in China, also known as expats.

China: a land of nearly 1.5 billion people, 56 recognized ethnic groups, and 292 living languages, spanning over 5,000 kilometers and 34 land divisions. Massive in size, notable in history, and influential in its economic and political maneuvers, China is simultaneously exciting and terrifying – something of a contradiction to the outside world, much loved and much feared.

Yet hidden beneath the gargantuan, State-driven China that is emphasized over-and-over again in news coverage lies an artistic day-to-day that few people see. As in any developing country, China has become a breeding ground for new and often innovative ideas – and included in that are an increasing number of musicians searching for their own identities. Many of them are following and documenting their own creative impulses, thereby bringing some musical change to a society otherwise dominated by mainstream Asian pop.

"The world's image of China is that of a faceless factory worker, the tasteless new rich Chinese buying property everywhere, the 1.5 billion black dots in the horizon sucking up resources. It doesn't realize that there are also 1.5 billion potential creative minds in this country as well. I think it will take time to make that true." – Helen Feng of Nova Heart
"世界对中国的印象一直以来都是千篇一律，毫无特征的工厂工人，只有金钱却毫无品味的中国买家，以及用力耗尽资源的15亿人口。然而大多数人都没有意识到，这15亿人口也是15亿个潜在创造力。我想这需要时间去使其成真。" - Nova Heart (新星心) 的冯海宁

From The Outside Looking In
外界的眼光

On the international stage, mainland China's music scene is still a novelty. It lacks the long-established cred of its neighboring Japan or the global buzz of Korea; and though prominent, even its folk music receives far less attention than that of more Western-influenced countries in South America, Africa, and Southeast Asia.
Nonetheless, in recent years, certain Chinese artists have been fortunate enough to tour internationally, as well as receive write-ups from global music blogs. Due to the lack of other exposure, these cherry-picked artists have more or less come to represent China's underground music scene to international audiences. Some in the Chinese music scene consider these representations limited and short-sighted.
"There are a handful of bands who are disproportionately covered in Western media... where the angle is not, ‘Look at this musically interesting new band,' but, ‘Look, there's punk [and] indie rock coming from China, how strange...'" explains Josh Feola, a booker behind monthly noise nights in Beijing and co-founder of the blog site Pangbianr. "We call that ‘China cred,' and it's a bogus but expected journalistic copout. Maybe you could say a minority of bands are getting attention, but not necessarily the kind of attention they deserve, and the rest get pretty much nothing."
Helen Feng (冯海宁), of the musical project Nova Heart (新星心), is one artist who has been lucky enough to be embraced by Western media. She has toured North America and been featured on La Blogoteque, an internationally-reknowned documentary video series. Fluent in English and Mandarin, Feng was born in Beijing and currently lives there – but because she spent much of her childhood in the United States and Canada, she has a particularly unique viewpoint of the Chinese music scene.
"There are a lot more opportunities to go overseas now, but I think just being a Chinese musician doesn't really help anymore," Feng explains. "China does get a fair bit of attention. However, the old curiosity about China has been replaced by negative stereotypes, and even though you have more chances to go abroad, people always try and pin you as a copy of ‘blah blah blah' because they refuse to believe that [your music] could be original. The only time they think, ‘Oh that may be original,' is if you're playing some Chinese traditional instrument or... taking very directly from Chinese music..."
She cites a scenario where a Western music critic called Nova Heart a copy of Happy Mondays, ignoring the roots of Happy Mondays themselves, who were influenced by disco and dance music that had been going on for decades. "It was so wrong it was laughable," says Feng, "but that's the way they had to see it. It's the way the world wants to see it: ‘No, it's from China; [it] has to be a copy of blah blah blah.'
Perhaps one reason for the world's proclivity towards writing China's music scene off as derivative is the very real fact that it was, in its early stages of development, highly shaped by foreigners living in China, also known as expats.

In purely musical terms, the years 1970 to 1979 had seen the flowering and then the decay of rock music's greats, with the seemingly unassailable hegemony of the major labels challenged by a host of new start-ups, supported by an underground press of printed fanzines whose look was inspired by the aesthetic of the Situationists. Above all, the ‘70s were a decade of rich variety, creativity and change, with extemporizations around the theme of rock music in a variety of forms that included the psychedelic, progressive, glam, soft, space, folk, blues, and hard subgenres of rock. All of these were derivations from music rooted in the 1960s, that morphed and changed brilliantly as the decade of Vietnam and oil crises got underway, before much of it collapsed under its own bloated self-importance. This was pop culture contracting, concertinaing and consuming itself to great and revolutionary effect.

In the October of that year, around the time Margaret Thatcher was delivering her famous "The lady's not for turning" speech, the Staggers Rail Act deregulated the American railroad system, and the Police released their third album Zenyatta Mondatta, Frenchy Gloder and Gina "Wild Thing" Nares started Flicknife Records. The plan was, according to Gloder, to make a label that would "do something no other label was doing. Most indie labels in 1980 were doing punk or high-energy rock/pop music, so we decided to go into psychedelic-orientated rock".

Over thirty years Flicknife Records have offered fans of established underground music figures the chance to hear unusual material that would not fit with the more controlling influences of most other labels. This would see the release of personal and pet projects, new or previously unreleased versions of well known tracks, live recordings, outtakes and never before heard studio demo sessions and completely new material. In Gloder's words: "If it's good and we like it, let's do it!"

This formula has worked as Flicknife Records are a rare, long-term survivor. They have neither sold out to a major, nor imploded beneath the ineluctable pressures of a business that has changed beyond all recognition since those heady days just before the first portable Sony Walkman audio cassette players and Motorola cellular phones.

Listening Station: The Early Years

The Mystere Fives

The first Flicknife release, in 1980, was by The Mystere Fives and was entitled No Message. Reaching number 3 in the UK indie charts, this band were in fact The Electric Chairs part of Wayne County and The Electric Chairs. These were first wave punk pioneers, whose genesis occurred in New York and London; a band who were supported by none other than the Police on a tour of Holland in 1977 and included ex-Police founding member Henry Padovani; a band whose transgender singer later changed his/her name to Jayne.

With its undeniably Police-influenced pop reggae sound, "No Message" was a major departure from the contentious punk, pub rock, blues stylings of Wayne County and The Electric Chairs, whose songs included "Fuck Off" and "(You Make Me) Cream In My Jeans", but it was catchy and did well in the indie charts.

The Mystere Fives - "No Message"; played by BBC Radio's John Peel.

Charlie Harper

The label's first album came in the form of Stolen Property, from Charlie Harper of U.K. Subs. Harper's album, made up of cover versions of his favourite songs, mostly from the psychedelic and glam rock eras, was a kind of Bowie's Pin Ups for a punk age supremo and featured punchy, loose versions of The Velvet Underground's "I'm Waiting for the Man" and Jimi Hendrix's "Hey Joe". In a way, this album partially signaled some of the the intent and future direction of Flicknife and what would set them apart from most other indie labels.

The 1980s: that decade of shoulder pads and deindustrialization, was to be a decade of neon-coloured clothing, big hair and financial big bangs; a decade when Frankie Goes to Hollywood said "Relax", and David Bohm proffered that space and time were no longer the dominant factors in the relationships of dependence. Behind it, left in the wreckage of history, memory and recollection, lay the 1970s, ten years of turmoil that spawned much to celebrate and much to abjure.
In purely musical terms, the years 1970 to 1979 had seen the flowering and then the decay of rock music's greats, with the seemingly unassailable hegemony of the major labels challenged by a host of new start-ups, supported by an underground press of printed fanzines whose look was inspired by the aesthetic of the Situationists. Above all, the ‘70s were a decade of rich variety, creativity and change, with extemporizations around the theme of rock music in a variety of forms that included the psychedelic, progressive, glam, soft, space, folk, blues, and hard subgenres of rock. All of these were derivations from music rooted in the 1960s, that morphed and changed brilliantly as the decade of Vietnam and oil crises got underway, before much of it collapsed under its own bloated self-importance. This was pop culture contracting, concertinaing and consuming itself to great and revolutionary effect.
In the October of that year, around the time Margaret Thatcher was delivering her famous "The lady's not for turning" speech, the Staggers Rail Act deregulated the American railroad system, and the Police released their third album Zenyatta Mondatta, Frenchy Gloder and Gina "Wild Thing" Nares started Flicknife Records. The plan was, according to Gloder, to make a label that would "do something no other label was doing. Most indie labels in 1980 were doing punk or high-energy rock/pop music, so we decided to go into psychedelic-orientated rock".
Over thirty years Flicknife Records have offered fans of established underground music figures the chance to hear unusual material that would not fit with the more controlling influences of most other labels. This would see the release of personal and pet projects, new or previously unreleased versions of well known tracks, live recordings, outtakes and never before heard studio demo sessions and completely new material. In Gloder's words: "If it's good and we like it, let's do it!"
This formula has worked as Flicknife Records are a rare, long-term survivor. They have neither sold out to a major, nor imploded beneath the ineluctable pressures of a business that has changed beyond all recognition since those heady days just before the first portable Sony Walkman audio cassette players and Motorola cellular phones.

Listening Station: The Early Years

The Mystere Fives

The first Flicknife release, in 1980, was by The Mystere Fives and was entitled No Message. Reaching number 3 in the UK indie charts, this band were in fact The Electric Chairs part of Wayne County and The Electric Chairs. These were first wave punk pioneers, whose genesis occurred in New York and London; a band who were supported by none other than the Police on a tour of Holland in 1977 and included ex-Police founding member Henry Padovani; a band whose transgender singer later changed his/her name to Jayne.
With its undeniably Police-influenced pop reggae sound, "No Message" was a major departure from the contentious punk, pub rock, blues stylings of Wayne County and The Electric Chairs, whose songs included "Fuck Off" and "(You Make Me) Cream In My Jeans", but it was catchy and did well in the indie charts.
The Mystere Fives - "No Message"; played by BBC Radio's John Peel.

Charlie Harper

The label's first album came in the form of Stolen Property, from Charlie Harper of U.K. Subs. Harper's album, made up of cover versions of his favourite songs, mostly from the psychedelic and glam rock eras, was a kind of Bowie's Pin Ups for a punk age supremo and featured punchy, loose versions of The Velvet Underground's "I'm Waiting for the Man" and Jimi Hendrix's "Hey Joe". In a way, this album partially signaled some of the the intent and future direction of Flicknife and what would set them apart from most other indie labels.
Charlie Harper - "I'm Waiting for the Man" (The Velvet Underground Cover)
The Velvet Underground – "I'm Waiting for the Man" (Original)